Tandy announced the Color Computer 3 on 30 July 1986 as a major update to its CoCo family. The commercial model started with 128 KB of RAM and could officially be expanded to 512 KB, as in the unit in this collection. The new GIME chip replaced much of the graphics and memory logic of earlier models, added higher-resolution video modes and provided RGB and composite-video output. It retained broad compatibility with CoCo 2 software and peripherals, keeping the Motorola 6809 processor at the heart of the platform.