  You are here: Palace of Progress > Technology in American
History: Collecting since 1980  Radio Shack Model 100 portable
computer, 1983Radio Shack Model 100 portable computer, 1983  One
of the first widely successful portable computers, this model
was a favorite of journalists and other mobile professionals
during the early 1980s. A technology that changes as quickly as
computer technology presents special collecting challenges. What
appears to be an important breakthrough at the time may seem, a
few years later, simply one in a very long line of minor
innovations. And the rapid obsolescence of personal computers
means that the Smithsonian is offered many more computers than
it can possibly accept. This Model 100, acquired in 1995, is one
of several computers donated by curators.  See also: Computers
Return to the Legacies Home Page  Privacy  |  Terms of Use