It’s well documented that the Raspberry Pi helped many older computers do more than they were ever designed to do. Darko Mesaros’ project Enables a 37-year-old TRS-80 Model 102 portable computer to deploy Kubernetes.
The TRS-80 model 102 (also known as the Tandy 102) doesn’t have the horsepower to deploy and run Kubernetes. But what it can do is be a terminal over a remote connection. To do this, Mesaros needed a little help getting online and used a WiModem32 connected to his RS232 serial port on the TRS-80. This serial Wi-Fi modem is essentially an ESP32 and uses old-style modem commands to connect to modern Wi-Fi devices. Using the TRS-80’s built-in terminal application (TELCO), Mesaros was able to set the baud rate to 300 and issue AT commands to connect the device to the WI-FI AP.
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This is where the Raspberry Pi comes into play. A Raspberry Pi is used as a Telnet server. Mesaros configures the TRS-80 to connect to his Telnet server, from which he can access a full Linux OS. This is more than the ability to deploy Kubernetes.
The TRS-80 Model 102 is famous for its form factor and keyboard. A journalist at the time would write copy and send the news to his room using an internal modem and acoustic coupler (just like in the movie wargames).At the time, 32KB of RAM and Intel 80C85 A CPU was enough for field journalists. Add to this his 20 hours of run time on 4 AA batteries, and you can see why the Tandy 102 was the go-to portable device of its time.
This project is more for fun than practical, but it shows how the retro community is adopting the latest technology (Raspberry Pi and ESP32) to enhance retro technology and provide new features. is showing.
