Introducing the Tandy Micro Executive Workstation

Proving that it's possible to stretch out a model name to any possible extreme, comes the "Micro Executive Work Station" (MEWS), otherwise known as the TRS-80 Model 100 - the TRS-80 being a 1977-vintage desktop actually made by Radio Shack, whilst the Model 100 was a rebranded portable unit made by Kyocera in Japan.

[picture: trs80_pocket.webp|Tandy's TRS-80 Pocket Computer, from 1981. It sold for £119 - about [[119|1981]] in [[now]] money.]

Spiritually the ancestor of the company's TRS-80 Pocket Computer of 1981, it was an 8-bit machine based on the Intel 80C85 with up to 32KB RAM, retailing for £649 for the 24K model - that's about [[649|1983]] in [[now]]. It went on to shift 6 million units[source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100].

[picture: tandy_trs80_100_percn_19830707.webp|Inside the TRS-80 100 Pocket Computer. From PCN, 7th July 1983]

PCN suggested in its 7th July 1983 edition that the 100 could sell very well among people who already have a perfectly good computer, but that many of those would probably not have a TRS-80 logo on them, despite what Tandy would like to have believed. 

This wider audience would require Tandy to change its previous attitude, which seemed to have been "well it works with Tandy equipment, and we neither know (nor care much) about the rest". Tandy machines were still only available through the company's own premises - which was good if there was one nearby - but at least that meant that there was also somewhere to take it back for repairs if something went wrong.

The review in PCN concluded:

<p class="ref">"given enough tries, anybody's going to get it right eventually, and with the Model 100 Tandy has. It isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than anything else around"</p>
