This was one of the first home computers or PCs. It was advertised in The Kansas City Star newspaper for $99.99 when it first came out around 1982, which made it the first computer that I was able to afford.

It had a Zilog Z80A processor running at a blazing 3.25MHz and 2kB of memory, upgradeable (starting in 1983) to 16kB for additional $259.00. Primary storage was via a cassette player, which was not included. It had a small under-sized membrane keyboard that was very difficult to type with and it used a regular TV for a monitor, also not included. It was 100% ZX81 compatible. The only difference (besides the name on the box) between the T/S 1000 and the Sinclair ZX81 is that the T/S 1000 came with 2k of memory instead of just 1k.


Technical Specifications:

  • BUILT IN LANGUAGE Sinclair Basic
  • KEYBOARD Membrane keyboard
  • CPU Zilog Z80A
  • SPEED 3.25 Mhz
  • RAM 2 KB
  • ROM 8 kb
  • TEXT MODES 32 x 22
  • GRAPHIC MODES 64 x 44
  • COLORS None, black & white
  • SOUND None
  • SIZE / WEIGHT 165mm(W) x 175mm(D) x 38mm(H) / 350g
  • I/O PORTS Expansion bus, tape-recorder, video
  • POWER SUPPLY 9V external power supply unit
  • PERIPHERALS Memory modules, thermal printer
  • PRICE $99.95

One of the fifth grade teachers at my elementary school had a computer club that met after school that used his T/S 1000. I went to it once, but all the silly kids just wanted to play games. Sheesh!

Thanks to cheapskate for motivating me to clear up my original writeup here.

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