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(Hardware) Project of the 'calendar quarter'


Omega-TI

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DSDD FDC?

 

;)

 

Wow, that seems a little complicated for the average weekender.

 

I was thinking a little variation of << Vorticon's circuit >> might be interesting.

 

1) Imagine this controlling a small motor to shake your joystick, that might inspire a new game or two.

2) Imagine the TI software gods making it possible to contact your TI via the Internet / UDS-10 to turn something on or off.

3) ______________________________________________ ?

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Using SAMS has some challenges for a programmer. The availability issue may become smaller with initiatives like this, but there is still a huge difference between having a large contiguous memory space and having paged memory like SAMS. The most obvious use is as a 'RAM disk' (edit: by which I mean a buffer for files loaded from disk), which is what it has mostly been used for in the past. It's great that RXB has support for paged SAMS, but what would be really great is if it could use SAMS for stack space. High level languages have the possibility of adding an abstraction layer in front of the paged memory so it appears to be contiguous. This is more difficult from assembly without suffering a relatively large performance loss. I would like to write an RPG that would use SAMS for storing a huge world, but because of the challenges this have never left the idea stage.

 

Well, with the 9900 you won't get direct CPU support for more than 64K. What do you propose? In the 99/4A it would be possible to page the full 32K. Would that make it more desirable? It is also not too difficult to make hardware that maps to a specific address and that acts like the VDP or GRAM, i.e. writing stores a value and auto-increments an internal address pointer, reading returns a value and auto-decrements an internal address pointer. The memory in question could also be directly in the CPU address space.

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Using SAMS has some challenges for a programmer. The availability issue may become smaller with initiatives like this, but there is still a huge difference between having a large contiguous memory space and having paged memory like SAMS. The most obvious use is as a 'RAM disk' (edit: by which I mean a buffer for files loaded from disk), which is what it has mostly been used for in the past. It's great that RXB has support for paged SAMS, but what would be really great is if it could use SAMS for stack space. High level languages have the possibility of adding an abstraction layer in front of the paged memory so it appears to be contiguous. This is more difficult from assembly without suffering a relatively large performance loss. I would like to write an RPG that would use SAMS for storing a huge world, but because of the challenges this have never left the idea stage.

Matthew's quote reminded me that I was curious about your 'large performance loss' statement. To what are you referring? Memory paging in assembly is pretty simple and a 256 byte page map would is sufficient to track all of the 4K blocks in a 1024K SAMS. Granted, if you are constantly allocating and deallocating memory, or creating private spaces for certain tasks, you would need some additional routines and/or lists.

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BITD, guys would "HARDWIRE" new routines into a computer to perform new function(s). Would it be possible to 'add' a small SMT board with appropriate hardware and software into the console to work with the SAMS board? In theory it would give it the functions one requires without taking away from usable memory. If it didn't require too many soldering points, it might be a viable solution. It's not like people here have never opened up their TI's to add stuff before.

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  • 1 month later...

The Tursi 32K 'in-console' Memory Expansion

1st Quarter of 2016

 

With the cool cartridge images that have been coming out that require 32K, I was thinking the time might be right for a dedicated 'gaming only machine'. Tursi's internal 32K memory expansion seems like 'just the ticket' to make this happen.

 

At first glance some of you may balk at this project, but if you look it over carefully, you'll realize that if you take your time and do it 'one wire at a time', it'll be a fairly nice project. So, pull out one of your many backup consoles ;) and consider giving this project a shot.

 

NOTE: If you buy the parts from Jameco like Tursi mentioned...

 

gallery_35324_1027_3052.jpg

...so you might want to add a couple of extra items.

 

The following attached PDF's should get you started. They are:

 

1) TI32k Mod ................The actual project by Tursi

2) TI-99 4A Dissassembly.... A PDF file made from the ripped off contents of MAINBYTE.COM

 

The other two are datasheets on the specific chips for those who are interested.

 

Oh yeah, one more thing... this project does not have to be just for a dedicated gaming machine. Some of you guys are running out of room in your P-Boxes, this project will let you, "open up one extra slot".

 

I just fixed another Mitsumi Keyboard, completed Shift's reset button mod and am about to do this very mod any moment. Printing docs now. Yep, I have the parts in hand. :)

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I just fixed another Mitsumi Keyboard, completed Shift's reset button mod and am about to do this very mod any moment. Printing docs now. Yep, I have the parts in hand. :)

 

Cool beans.

 

The next console I plan to mod is going to rely on JediMatt42's side-car 32K (when it's ready). I'd like to get it done before Christmas, but absolutely by Fest West. I plan on bringing a 40" screen for anyone who might want to plug in their P-Box for a demo, but I don't want any memory conflicts/issues with their hardware, I also don't want to install any external switches on the console.

gallery_35324_1027_100076.gif

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like I blew the fuse on my test PEB while doing initial chacks on the Speech in PEB card. There seems to be a short to ground somewhere on the test board. Looks like I'll be having some more troubleshooting fun (after I replace the SloBlo fuse under the square voltage panel--and hoping that it didn't take out the fuse in the transformer too, as they are a pain to replace). If it comes to that though, I think I have a spare transformer in my boxes-o-parts. . .

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Looks like I blew the fuse on my test PEB while doing initial chacks on the Speech in PEB card. There seems to be a short to ground somewhere on the test board. Looks like I'll be having some more troubleshooting fun (after I replace the SloBlo fuse under the square voltage panel--and hoping that it didn't take out the fuse in the transformer too, as they are a pain to replace). If it comes to that though, I think I have a spare transformer in my boxes-o-parts. . .

 

ACK! may be smart to add a fuse to your extender? or a breaker

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  • 2 years later...

... found this old thread when searching for something else this morning...

                           ... as we start the fall & winter seasons ...

                                          ... reactivating this old thread might be fun...

                                                        ... but what would the project be?

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