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Radio Shack Model 100 portable computer, 1983. One of the first widely successful portable computers, this model was a favorite of journalists and other mobile professionals during the early 1980s. A technology that changes as quickly as computer technology presents special collecting challenges. What appears to be an important breakthrough at the time may seem, a few years later, simply one in a very long line of minor innovations. And the rapid obsolescence of personal computers means that the Smithsonian is offered many more computers than it can possibly accept. This Model 100, acquired in 1995, is one of several computers donated by curators. (photo credit bm.1)