4 ms·

I remember sitting in a RadioShack as a kid poking at Xenix on a Model 16 and trying to figure out how to use it. I never made any progress as it took a long ti

I remember sitting in a RadioShack as a kid poking at Xenix on a Model 16 and trying to figure out how to use it. I never made any progress as it took a long time to boot whereas the adjacent Color Computers and most other TRS-80 models booted instantly into BASIC.

bsharitt 6y ago
I know the model 16 had a 68k, but it just seems bizarre that a version of Unix ran on a TRS-80.
- leejoramo 6y ago
  The earlier Model II was the first TSR-80 with Xenix.
  - housel 6y ago
    No, the Model II had only a 4MHz Z-80. The Model 16 (and later the Model 6000) had a 68k-series coprocessor, and Xenix ran in that (using the Z-80 for I/O).
- jandrese 6y ago
  It's not so crazy when you consider the specs of the machines Unix was developed on. A PDP-11/20 comes with 24k of memory (16k 18bit words) and 500k of drive space and was shared between an entire department full of people. The reason Unix exists is because they couldn't afford a machine big enough to run Multics.
  - dboreham 6y ago
    An 11/20 didn't give a great Unix experience though. You needed an 11/45 with a 80MB drive to support multiple users.
  - nix23 6y ago
    >The reason Unix exists is because they couldn't afford a machine big enough to run Multics. So true, just imagine a world where multics and some unix spice would be the to-go system....like linux is today.
- hapless 6y ago
  The model 16 was so much bigger and more powerful than the original TRS-80 that it included an entire original TRS-80, whose only job was to operate the keyboard and serial port. Seriously 100x as much CPU power
jhallenworld 6y ago
Another operating system for Model 16s was RM/COS- a COBOL operating system. This was popular because it was smaller than Xenix on your 8 MB hard drive. There is not much information about it, but check out this cool catalog from 1986 (Model-II was "Tandy-6000" by this point- I see there is a punch card reader available..): https://www.thecomputerarchive.com/Catalogs%20and%20Price%20Lists/Retail/Tandy%20Radio%20Shack%20Computer%20Catalog%201986%20RSC-15.pdf https://www.thecomputerarchive.com/Catalogs%20and%20Price%20...

bsharitt 6y ago

I know the model 16 had a 68k, but it just seems bizarre that a version of Unix ran on a TRS-80.

leejoramo 6y ago
The earlier Model II was the first TSR-80 with Xenix.
- housel 6y ago
  No, the Model II had only a 4MHz Z-80. The Model 16 (and later the Model 6000) had a 68k-series coprocessor, and Xenix ran in that (using the Z-80 for I/O).
jandrese 6y ago
It's not so crazy when you consider the specs of the machines Unix was developed on. A PDP-11/20 comes with 24k of memory (16k 18bit words) and 500k of drive space and was shared between an entire department full of people. The reason Unix exists is because they couldn't afford a machine big enough to run Multics.
- dboreham 6y ago
  An 11/20 didn't give a great Unix experience though. You needed an 11/45 with a 80MB drive to support multiple users.
- nix23 6y ago
  >The reason Unix exists is because they couldn't afford a machine big enough to run Multics. So true, just imagine a world where multics and some unix spice would be the to-go system....like linux is today.
hapless 6y ago
The model 16 was so much bigger and more powerful than the original TRS-80 that it included an entire original TRS-80, whose only job was to operate the keyboard and serial port. Seriously 100x as much CPU power

jhallenworld 6y ago

Another operating system for Model 16s was RM/COS- a COBOL operating system. This was popular because it was smaller than Xenix on your 8 MB hard drive. There is not much information about it, but check out this cool catalog from 1986 (Model-II was "Tandy-6000" by this point- I see there is a punch card reader available..): https://www.thecomputerarchive.com/Catalogs%20and%20Price%20Lists/Retail/Tandy%20Radio%20Shack%20Computer%20Catalog%201986%20RSC-15.pdf https://www.thecomputerarchive.com/Catalogs%20and%20Price%20...