Model T

What's a “Model T” Computer?

“Model T” is an umbrella term which refers to a set of closely related portable computers released by different companies in the early 1980s. While the TRS-80 Model 100 (aka "m100") is the most well-known of the family, it had "sisters" which were designed from the same template with variations that made them unique and (usually) incompatible.

Model T Computers

Brand	Model	Nicknames	Notes
TRS-80	Model 100	m100	Sold by Radio Shack. Most well-known.
Tandy	200	t200, m200	Larger screen, clamshell case.
Tandy	102	t102, m102, Model 100/102	Nearly 100% compatible with m100.
Kyocera	Kyotronic-85	k85, kyo85, KC-85	Possibly the first of the Model T computers.
NEC	PC-8201 / PC-8201A	nec, 8201, n82	"A" version is for export (non-Japanese). Runs N82 BASIC.
NEC	PC-8300	nec, 8201, n82	100% compatible with PC-8201.
Olivetti	M10	?	Stylish.

History of the phrase

Since the 1980s, aficionados of the TRS-80 Model 100 typically used the number “100” to name themselves — "M100SIG", "Portable 100", "Club 100", "Web100", and of course, "Bitchin 100" — and the other, less popular computers got lumped in under the same term by default.

In the early 1990s, people began using the phrase "Model T" computers, this time explicitly including the whole family. Here is what Gene Wilburn said at the time:

Michael Daigle has dubbed the M100 the “Model T,” evoking images of that venerable earlier technology that likewise had a profound impact on our lives. Thanks, Michael. I’m going to borrow your delightful coinage to cover the Tandy 100/102, its younger, heftier brother, the Tandy 200, as well as its cousins, the NEC 8201/8300, Kyocera KC-85, and Olivetti M10.

—Gene Wilburn in Model T Joyride

Portable 100 Magazine, April 1991

Ambiguities

Occasionally, people use “Model T” to mean only the TRS-80/Tandy portable computers. To emphasize that one is speaking about the family of closely related computers, not just the Radio Shack variants, one could instead refer to their common DNA with the Kyocera Kyotronic-85. (As in, “Few programs can run on all of the Kyotronic sisters, but this one does.”)

Less commonly, some people use the phrase "Model T" to include computers which filled a similar niche, being portable computers from around the same era. For example:

Cousins of the Model T

Brand	Model	Nicknames	Notes
Tandy	600	T600	Larger screen, clamshell case.
Tandy	WP-2	WP2	Portable word processor.
Cambridge	Z88
NEC	PC-8500