Still sought after by writers and students, the Tandy WP-2 and Tandy WP-3 are perfect writing companions. Used to take notes, prepare reports and write letters, these WP systems are technically real computers based on a Zilog Z80 processor. The WP-2 is essentially a Tandy-branded version of a Citizen portable wordprocessor called the CBM-10WP.
Extract from Tandy catalog:
"There are battery operated, weight only 3.1 pounds and are 1" thin. The full size keyboard lets you cut, paste, search, replace, center and justify your text with just a few keystrokes. And there's no need to lug around a heavy dictionnary. The jet black case houses a 100,000-word spelling checker and a 200,000-word thesaurus. For hard copies of your work, the WP-2 easily connectes to Tandy or IBM-compatible printers. You even add an optional modem to transfer files to your personal computer by phone."
The following applications are built-in ROM and available in standard: TEXT, TELCOM, PHONE (address), CALENDAR (schedule), SPELLCHECK and FILES.
The WP-2/3 while being dedicated word processors also have a terminal mode and x-modem file transfer capabilities. You can write programs on another computer, assemble them and xfer them to the WP-2/3 with x-modem and they can then be run.
The WP-3 seems to be the exact same model except that it has 64 KB as standard (whereas the WP-2 has 32 KB). The only other significant difference between the WP-2 and WP-3 is that the WP-3 has British English dictionary and the keyboard can generate the UK pound symbol.
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Contributors: David Wilson
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Roger, it''s been over a year, but do you still need a Tandy WP-2? I have one that I don''t use all that much and was thinking of posting it on eBay or Craigslist. It''s been upgraded with a 128kb RAM internal storage chip (I actually have an extra 128kb RAM internal storage chip if anyone else is interested) and comes with a black vinyl slipcover case. I can be reached at oahu_NO_SPAM_1961 at yah_oo dot com (just remove the obvious, the underscores and $ the appropriate punctuation marks).
Monday 22nd October 2012
TC (USA)
I still have one of these somewhere. By the time I got it it was already considered a bit of a dinosaur, but it was so helpful during my time at highschool and university. And unlike other computers I owned at the time it NEVER crashed or lost data.
Sorry Roger, but I''m hanging on to it. I got rid of nearly all of my old computers as I upgraded and I regret that very much.
Saturday 16th June 2012
SmurfyDog
Need operating manual wp100 wp-2
Wednesday 24th August 2011
Roger Keller (United States)
NAME
Portable Wordprocessor WP-2 / WP-3
MANUFACTURER
Tandy Radio Shack
TYPE
Portable
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1989
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
word processor, simple terminal emulator program and telephone directory/calendar software
KEYBOARD
full stroke keyboard, 62 keys
CPU
NEC 70008A-6 (Zilog Z-80 compatible)
SPEED
5.5296 MHz
RAM
WP-2 : 32 KB (up to 160 KB) WP-3 : 64 KB (up to 160 KB)
ROM
256 KB (BIOS, word processor & spell check)
TEXT MODES
80x8
GRAPHIC MODES
480x64 (but not usable as no programmable language is available)