KC-85

The Tandy TRS-80 model 100/102 and 200 provide a ROM socket to add built in programs to the machine. To make inserting and replacing the ROM more user friendly the designers choose to use a custom chip socket (Molex series 78805) with 700mils pitch. The Molex carriers that mate with the sockets have been out of production for many years and are nowadays impossible to obtain.

Being nostalgic for the birth of laptop computers we recently acquired an Olivetti M10. The M10, like many of the KC-85 derivatives like the Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 and the NEC PC8201A, uses custom modules for their system RAM. These modules contained four 2Kx8 SMD SRAMs mounted on a ceramic substrate with a non standard DIP footprint. Needless to say, these modules have become increasingly hard to find.