ABN.COSCOM-CE%USC-ISID@sri-unix.UUCP (12/14/83)
The recent announcement by Tandy (aka Radio Shack) of the System 2000 impressed me quite a bit. It sounded like Tandy had finally come up with a wonderful machine. Well I went to my local computer store to take a look. In my impression, having only used the Tandy demo disk, the 2000 is the best thing along since the IBM (which when introduced created quite a flurry of industry notice). The 2000 uses the Intel 80186. This chip is an advance over the 8088 used in the IBM in three primary ways. First it is a true 16 bit cpu. Both the internal architecture and the address bus are 16 bits wide. In the 8088, only the internal architecture is 16 bits. The data path is 8 bits and for that reason was able to take advantage of the large already existing 8 bit peripheral market. But Tandy has a full line of peripherals already available and so is not out to lunch because the data path is wider. The second difference is the clock speed. The clock speed of the 8086 is 4.7 MHertz. The 2000 runs at 8 MHertz. Thats an almost direct increase in processing speed of 70 percent (and it shows). The third difference is the chip replacement. The 8086 chip has a family of chips that are used to support it when a computer is built. The 80186 consolidates a number of these chips into one chip (I don't know the count- someone help). Well on to the drives. There are two configurations, one with two DS/DD drives and one with one drive and a 10MByte drive. The disk drives are half height drives that each can hold 720 KBytes. That's 1.4 MBytes of floppy storage alone. Quite a chunk and twice the IBM PC storage. But the drives can read and write to IBM PC disks. In fact the standard operating system is MS-DOS. And the drives are quite fast, silent and have very nice drive doors. Standard system of the 2000 is cpu with 2 disk drives, monitor adapter, 128KBytes, printer and RS232 interfaces, MS-DOS for list of $2750.00. The monochrome monitor costs $249.00. So a basic system costs $2999.00 compared to a comparable IBM PC list of $3658.00 (for the most comparable system.) Other sundry characteristics that might be of interest follow: -monochrome graphics are possible at 600x400 pixel resolution. -color graphics are possible at 600x400 resolution with 8 simultaneous colors. -the standard system can accept another 128KBytes on the mother board. -there are 4 slots available on the standard system. These slots are mounted so that they can be installed and removed directly into the back panel without opening anything. -256KByte expansion board is available. -a floor pedestal for the main box is available and so is a swival tilt mount for the monitor. -the keyboard is detachable and connected with a coiled cable. -it has a 90 key keyboard witha fairly nice feel. There are 14 function keys, a numeric keypad, some special keys for printing, hold cursor control, etc. But the best thing is the keyboard is standard typewriter with shift keys in the right place, return key right size, etc. -because it uses MS-DOS, there are already a number of software packages available. One final operating comment. The overall set up is nice and convenient. The power and reset switches are easy to access but hard to accidently hit. The unit is fairly silent in operation and the keyboard is good for typing. The system runs fast on graphics as is demonstrated by the demo. If Tandy can overcome the market difficulties of 16 bit peripherals and non IBM add on cards, the 2000 should do fantastic and set new standards. Until IBM comes out with a 80186 machine. Kevin Rappold