Colorful Computing

Roach, who became Radio Shack’s division president and chief operating o- cer in 1980, and, at age 42 in 1981 would become one of the youngest CEOs in the country, was one of the original forces behind Tandy’s successful venture into preassembled computers. Clearly, he was no stranger to high-risk, high-rewardtechnology ventures. As such, it was decided that instead of trying to shoehorn competitive color graphics and sound capabilities into a new TRS-80, that computer line would remain separate and primarily be targeted to home oce and business users (Figure 3.1). Fortunately for Tandy, in the interest of productizingthe idea for a timely release in an increasingly competitive market, much of the groundwork for its rst color computer was already laid by its earlier Project Green umb venture with Motorola Semiconductor, while other eciencies could be leveraged with their concurrent VIDEOTEX initiative.