'Born' in 1980, the TRS-80 ran on a Z80 based microprocessor. It came with 4 Kbytes of RAM, but was often expanded to 16 Kbytes. Later models came with 16K or 32K. It is interesting to mention that the 32K used 64K memory chips. Some people would therefore enable the top 32 Kbytes, and effectively double their memory for free.

It also came with 8K of ROM, expandable to 16K. Its video display was driven by the 6847 chip. Nine colors were available: the standard eight video colors plus orange. The displayed colors had to be selected from two predefined four-color palettes for four-color modes, and two predefined two-color palettes for two-color modes. No color switching was possible.

Special variations of display modes were possible by exploiting the 6847's flexibility. Its CPU was clocked at 0.89 MHz, although the clock generator could be programmed to generate a double-speed clock of 1.78 MHz. (why this was not standard is uncertain) For audio, the TRS-80 used a 6-bit DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter), controlled by the CPU.

This allowed for 64 different volume levels, and quite a bit of fancy sounds (speech and other samples, for instance). But, since the DAC was under CPU control, using the sound options taxed performance incredibly.

BASIC and cassette storage also were included; the input/output ports were as follows: a bus connector/cartridge connector for game cartridges, two analog joystick connectors, a tape player/recorder connector (1500 baud interface), an RS-232 serial port, and a TV connector (RF modulator).

However, perhaps one of the biggest plusses for the TRS-80 were its easy-to-understand manuals that assumed no prior knowledge on the part of the consumer.