This line of laptops, or "slabtops" are considered by many to be the most popular line of portable machines ever made.  Radio Shack contributed greatly to that success.

Introduced in 1983-4, most of the line was manufactured by Kyocera.  NEC licensed the basic design and made their own version.

Kyocera approached Bill Gates to design the "operating system", actually a simple menu to select the application you wanted.  

Battery life runs on the order of 18+ hours on 4 AA batteries.  

The 100 was, and still is, immensely popular with journalists because of it's long battery life and the fact they could simply dial up their editors, upload their files and continue on their business.

Common Features Storage: optional external cassette or floppy drive   Weight: 3.8 pounds   OS:  Menu to select Microsoft apps. or BASIC
Display:  40X 8 character LCD CPU:80C85, 2.4MHz Power:  4 'AA' batteries, external 6vdc power supply
       
Manufacturer and model name/number Kyocera Kyotronics KC85 NEC PC-8201A (A designates US model)  Exclusive to Japan were the red, silver, and blue models.

I have both a red and a silver.  Looking for a blue.  Anyone offering?

 Olivetti M10 Tandy/Radio Shack Model 100/102 
Memory 16-32K RAM 16-96K RAM (with RAM cartridge, banked switched) 16-32K RAM                      8-32K RAM
32-64K ROM
Built-in Applications BASIC
Text
Telcom
Address
Scheduler		 BASIC
Text
Telcom
 BASIC
Text
Telcom
Address
Scheduler		 BASIC
Text
Telcom
Address
Scheduler
External Ports RS-232 RS-232 RS-232 RS-232
Printer Printer Printer Printer
Cassette  Cassette Cassette Cassette
System Bus Serial 1/2 (19200 baud) Phone Phone (modem)
BCR (Bar Code Reader)  BCR  BCR
System Bus System Bus
Internal Expansion 1 ROM socket 2 ROM, 6 RAM sockets, cartridge slot for RAM 4 ROM/RAM sockets 1 ROM socket
Modem no no 300 baud, US only 300 baud
Comments The original by the company who designed the line. Far and away the most expandable Definitely the most stylish with tilting screen. Thanks to Radio Shack's mass marketing, the most popular.  102 was a weight and cost reduced version.
Descendents none NEC PC-8300, PC-8401, PC-8500 none Tandy 102, 200, 600(sort of!)
Original Price $799 $799 $799-999 $799 - $999, 102 - $ 499

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