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TK-82

The TK-82, of Microdigital Eletrônica Ltda, was one of the first Brazilian home computer anyone could afford. It was a fairly close copy of the Sinclair ZX-80 albeit looking very similar to a Timex TS-1000, the US version of the ZX-81 which was also sold in Brazil.

It was the second computer made by Microdigital, after the TK-80, first attempt to produce a ZX-80 copy. The company will later produce clones of a variety of other popular computers such as the Sinclair Spectrum, Apple II and even Tandy TRS-80 Model III. Actually, Microdigital never produced computers of its own design.

However, the TK-82 wasn't a mere copy of the ZX-80 but featured several enhancements: two KB of RAM instead of one, a joystick interface, a tone generator and a dual tape transfer speed which could be either 300 or 4800 baud.

Three models were successively launched. The TK-82 with 4 KB of BASIC ROM, then the TK-82S with 8 KB of ROM, then the TK-83 which RAM memory could be expanded up to 64 KB. First models used standard logic chips. They were later replaced by one custom chip, probably copied from the Sinclair ULA.

Thanks to Dimitri Kokken for the picture.