Who coined the nickname “Trash-80” and what was the source of their animosity?

Question

In the U.S. in the early 1980's (1980-1982, roughly), the TRS-80 Model I/III computers were commonly referred to by teens and youngsters as the "Trash-80". The best reason I can attribute to this widespread "trash talk" is that the TRS-80 was:

• Popular among teachers pushing basic computer skills.
• Not popular among the students, who preferred an Atari 800 or Apple ][ at home.

This is from a U.S. perspective. I don't know if the nickname was used overseas. My impression was that the kids were the ones spreading this nickname, not the adults. But everyone seemed to be aware of the nickname, including Tandy.

Is there any hope for assigning correct attribution to the famous nickname "Trash-80"?

Note: Jimmy Maher, the Digital Antiquarian, has published what I'd consider the definitive recent article on the early history of the Trash-80. But it doesn't answer this peculiar question...

Edit: It seems unlikely this nickname can be attributed to a single first source. It was probably so obvious that it arose simultaneously. The answers describe many of the technical weaknesses that may have encouraged the nickname to spread. However, a second major factor might have been Radio Shack's (the Company) own image. A good answer should address this factor too, IMO.

Answer 1

Since when do kids need a reason to trashtalk? Especially with an abbreviation calling for such an interpretation? And fans of competing computers where even more eager to jump the train. The war didn't start with Amiga vs. Atari ST :)

But (a bit more) serious, there was also a real reason for this name: Early Model 1 where already on itself rather unreliable. When paired with an expansion unit, it became notorious. Sudden resets, strange memory reads, lost RAM content and plain not working conditions happend on a steady base. Part due the rather lousy design, but as well due low quality components. For example the expansion unit connector was something to be replaced even before testing for any other error.

That term wasn't just used among some students or teachers. It was also used in magazins and other publications early on. Just check this letter in the December 1978 issue of Kilobaud. Or this editorial in the January 1980 issue, the very first issue of 80-Microcomputing, a magazin soly dedicated to Tandy computers.

It further was well known here in Europe, even before the machine could be bought. Such a catchy name spreads fast :))

Answer 2

The Model 1 was a self contained computer that plugged in to, essentially, a TV set. And that was all well and good, if feature light (16K RAM, Cassette port, limited text and graphics). But it was plug and play.

The original version, w/4K and Level 1 BASIC was notorious, for example, for key bounce. You could buy a simple mod to fix it, and it was remedied in the Level 2 BASIC.

But then came the Expansion Interface. And the EI plugged in via a ribbon cable to the main unit, offered up a printer port and diskette interface, as well as RAM expansion (it may have offered a serial port, but the one we used never used it, so I just don't recall).

Ribbon cables from the main device, ribbon cables out to the Disk drives.

Ribbon cables are very good antennas. Plugging antennas in to computer boards just doesn't work well. So, these were a glorious source for adding noise to the system from, just, well, anything near by. There was one example of a computerized toy tank that when it traveled underneath a TRS-80, the tanks CPU noise would crash the TRS-80.

Undoubtedly the original TRS-80 was part of the reason the FCC got in to the business of regulating computers. The FCC regulations is a primary reason the Model III replaced the Model I.

All the spurious noise just adds uncertainty to the system. Our particular system had no problems with it, and was pretty much rock solid reliable, though we did have some unremembered issues with the disk drives every now and then.

But one thing, from a design point of view, that was particularly striking of the TRS-80 was something my father stumbled upon as he was looking to interface hardware to the machine for custom projects.

The Z80 has two pins. A Bus Request pin, and a Bus Acknowledgment pin. Outside electronics send a signal the REQ pin, and the CPU will essentially "finish what it is doing", go in to a sleep state of sorts, and then trigger the ACK pin to let the requester know it is done.

Another thing the TRS-80 had was a series of tri-state buffers, notably, interfacing RAM to the CPU. Without getting too technical, the tri-state buffer lets one set of electronics, roughly, disconnect from other electronics in the same circuit. So, these were a mechanism to isolate the CPU from the RAM.

But on the TRS-80, the tri-state buffers were tied to the Bus REQUEST pin, not the Bus ACK pin. That means, when someone from the outside wants to ask the CPU for the bus, the first thing it does is disconnect the CPU ... from the bus! So, it's very possible that the CPU can't "finish what it's doing". For example it could be reading a multi-byte op code (like, a JP instruction), and after reading the opcode, the RAM just vanishes before it gets the actual address. The bus request lets the Z80 finish things like that.

But not on the Model 1. That RAM gets yanked out from underneath it before it can say "Wh...".

Very strange design decision. Naively, you would think they would tie the tri-state toggle to the bus acknowledge pin.

This was the wild west, folks. Don't be amazed at the problems you see, rather be amazed this stuff worked at all.

All that said, we were happy with the TRS-80. When I was getting my own first machine I was debating between a Model III and an Atari 800. I ended up with the Atari. Good friend of mine loved his Model III, however.

Answer 3

I can tell you as a former Radio Shack employee, we used to call them that as well. That said, I am happy with my still functioning, very modified Mod I.