Tandy's Personal Computer

The New York Times

LAS VEGAS, Nev., Nov. 30, 1983 -- The Tandy Corporation today introduced a personal computer - the TRS-80 Model 2000 - that will be nearly compatible with the International Business Machines Corporation Personal Computer, a machine that is coming to dominate the corporate market.

Tandy's move thus leaves Apple Computer Inc. as the only major manufacturer that has not yet adopted the MS-DOS operating system used by I.B.M. Apple has said, however, that it will offer the system in the future.

Tandy executives, in a news briefing at the Comdex Computer Show here, said the new machine would be faster than the I.B.M. computer, would have more disk storage capacity and would be less expensive.

A $2,750 Price Tag

The Model 2000 will sell for $2,750 and will include 128,000 characters of internal memory and two floppy disk drives, each capable of storing 720,000 characters, roughly twice as much as the I.B.M. disk drives. A Model 2000 with 256,000 characters of internal memory, a 10-million-character hard disk and a floppy disk drive will sell for $4,250. The machines will be available in more than 1,000 Radio Shack computer centers Thursday, and will also be sold by the company's national accounts sales force. While the Tandy machine does appear to be several hundred dollars less expensive than a comparably equipped I.B.M. computer, the Model 2000 is not fully compatible with the I.B.M. machine, which some analysts saw as a drawback. Some I.B.M. programs can run on the Tandy computer but others, including some popular programs such as 1-2-3 and Wordstar, cannot unless they are modified by software developers.

The new computer uses an 80186 microprocessor chip from the Intel Corporation, an advanced version of the 8088 chip used in the I.B.M. machine. That will make the Tandy computer faster than the I.B.M. computer, but it could also cause supply problems for Tandy because Intel has said it will fall far short of being able to meet the demand for the new chip.

Hobby Shop Image

For Tandy, the new machine could help penetrate the corporate market, where in the past it has not done very well because it lacks a strong direct sales force and did not conform to I.B.M. standards.

Tandy has also been hurt by the electronic ''hobby shop'' image of its Radio Shack chain. To counter that, the new machine is being called the Tandy Model 2000, rather than the Radio Shack 2000.

''This clearly differentiates the product from our consumer image, Radio Shack,'' said John V. Roach, chairman of Tandy.

In another departure, Tandy is allowing software companies to sell programs for the new machine under their own brand names. Previously, all products sold under the Radio Shack label.