====== Video Technology Laser 110 (1983) ======
===== Features =====
* CPU: Z80A 3,58 MHz
* Co-Processor: Motorola 6847 video processor
* RAM: 4 KB or 8 KB ? upgradeable to 64 KB
* ROM: 16 KB
* Text Modes: 32 columns x 16 lines (Mode 0)
* Graphic Modes: 128 x 64 dots (Mode 1)
* Colors: Monochrome
* Sound: Beeper, 1 voice & 3 octaves
* I/O Ports: Tape-recorder (600 bauds), RF tv out, Composite video out, Memory upgrade port, Expansion port
* Keyboard: QWERTY, 45 rubber keys, Basic instructions and graphic symbols
* Built In Language: Microsoft Basic
===== History and Trivia =====
The Laser 100/110 was the first model of the Laser 100/200/300 family.
The ROM was nearly identical to the one of the Tandy Radio-Shack TRS-80 Color Computer, with only minor changes. It's so close that when people write Laser emulators, they use TRS-80 CoCo ROM documentations (Laser detailed documentations are hard to find, especially about the ROM itslef).
The Basic was a Microsoft Basic just slightly modified to avoid lawsuits, some statements being stored in the ROM but not available on the machine!
Like the most of the Vtech products, the Laser 100/110 was "cheaply" conceived: chicklet keyboard, plastic case, light-weight... It was produced to compete against the first wave of micro-computers like the famous Sinclair ZX-81.
The difference between the Laser 100 and the Laser 110 must be the RAM size (like the Laser 200 and 210), though very little information on the Laser 100 is available.
The biggest difference with its big brother the Laser 200 was that it only had a black & white display.
An obscure VZ-100 version was also released but this wasn't the same machine as the VZ series sold in Australia and New-Zealand by Dick Smith Electronics.
//(info from old-computers.com)//
===== Links =====
* Laser 100/110 at old-computers.com -- http://old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=448
Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009