kl99

i hope it works out. also never tried much in GPL so far.

Some update: Piero from Italy contacted me. He also owns this machine and his is running. He is still in search of an actual operating system on disk. He offered me to program new PROM chips, the ones which have some broken legs on my unit. He also has the Graphics Rom Kit that comes on 2 chips and allows sort of Graphic on the VDU. Also I will get those programmed by him. Just now the TMS4116 Ram replacement chips arrived. Also I am have bougth myself an oscilloscope.

Can you calculate the absolute address inside your program and write the result into a Register and use that to branch to? Isn't the current GROM program location stored in Scratch Pad RAM ? You could read out that value in your beginning of your program to figure out from which memory location your Gpl is currently executed and calculate the offset from there.

I have my 99/2 stored away again. I am little bit low of space currently due to the huge DS990 machine opened and spreaded across two tables. On Friday I fly away. Did you verify that the program works in the emulated 99/2? Regarding character definitions, didn't you see the little man I once posted:

I ordered the 99/4 chip (TMS9918) here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-Video-Display-Processor-IC-TI-DIP-40-TMS9918NL/362255976345?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 The 99/4A chip (TMS9918A) is here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-Video-Display-Processor-IC-TI-DIP-40-TMS9918ANL/401500438194?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 All arrived in very good protected package.

Our local TI-99 Usergroup in Austria started talking about making a TI-99 Laptop. While one guy prefers to cut an original 99/4A Mainboard using the F18A and a nanoPEB, I would prefer to design a dedicated PCB. Doing that would simply allow learning a lot more from such a project. From this (still not working) TI DS990-1 Commercial Computer I am learning so much about Hardware, Diagnosis and Electronics. And I am keen to do more in this direction. From any design it would be key to maintain compatibility with existing operating systems (Geneve, 99/4, 99/4A, 99/8, 99/2, TI-990). I am really suprised there was so few interest shown in this thread.

Testing twice the 32kb speed test program Testing once the 24kb speed test program Testing CALL CLEAR behavior. It shows that CALL CLEAR blanks the screen and CALL GCHAR returns that value 32 (blank) is at every screen location. Instead of the value 255, that mizapf expected.

Did you miss my post that contains the stored audio file? I am already done with that part.

It does that on the 99/4 at least. I can check with GCHAR tomorrow. Will run your tests tomorrow.

Hi again! The cable situation was not easy. There is no audio out on the 99/2, at least not without a NTSC Tuner in your Television. This never was a problem since there is no sound output, and therefore a PAL Tuner can be used for the black/white video. Therefore I can not tell you, whether the 99/2 would output the tape recording sound on the television like it does on the 99/4(A) when recording/loading a program. So you don't hear what you record or read in. The 99/2 is not featuring a 9 pin port for the tape recorder, but two mono(?) jacks, one for input, one for output, and no motor control for the tape recorder. I was able to record a single line program to tape, did it twice. ti-99-2-basic-prg.zip The line is 10 CALL CLEAR (or line number 100, i am unsure now). I was not able to OLD that program back into memory. Maybe it was some cable problem, since I only have and used stereo jacks on both ends. After I recorded the tape content via line out onto my laptop, which is currently having some hardware issues with sound output (it is silent unless headphones attached(, so it stayed a bit uneasy. The only program I found was Sound recorder which only provided wma as save format. So please bare in mind and transform to the target format. I can do more speed tests tonight. Shouldn't the display be rather filled with characters beyond ascii code 127 to trigger the EOL and allow more cpu time. I am not sure whether ascii char 32 triggers this.

those are the speed tests that i found in the thread. please check the timing from the video. now trying to save a program to cassette tape.

I am preparing the 99/2 setup now for the desired speed tests. Please try to stay available to answer upcoming questions.

Hi, I also welcome that step and want to thank you for those efforts. Including the goal to not undermine the original event and that efforts. It definately gives a trip to Chicago more TI depth. Personally I am facing a situation where my wife and me will be living from my income for the next two years, so she is able to return to school and do her certificates. So I can not tell yet how affordable a trip is for me. At the moment I am rather pessimistic, but indeed tempted. Did you double check on the Faire Date?

I feel sorry for your loss.

Isn't the 9938 here? https://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-Video-Display-Processor-IC-YAMAHA-DIP-64-V9938-V9938C/273089917833?epid=735380537&hash=item3f956d7389:g:DDEAAOSwB-1Y50Se

This book is not yet digitized in any form at all, or is it? I didn't find it in The Cyc and not on whtech nor in Ernie Pergrem Digital Books Archive. I am highly interested on the content.

Thanks for this explanation. And thanks again Ksarul for letting this 99/4 ship to you 2 years back

Great news Michael! Sorry that my devices are currently not that ready to test things for you. My two desks are stuffed with stuff from the Ds990, which we are still trying to get to work. I was on the TI topic the whole weekend. Simply with other things. Trying out my first oscilloscope, tracing wires on the DS990 processor card to document it, reassembling one 99/4A, dissassembly and analyze of the 99/4,...

I checked my only TI-99/4 this weekend. It is assembled in 1981, motherboard shows 1037231-2, on mainbyte.com you can see a 1037231-1: http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/computers/motherboard_ti994.html It is a NTSC version. The mainboard asks for the usual 12V, 5V and -5V. I can use my typical EU power supplies to get those values. The 99/4 is nicely working. I was wondering on the different kind of power supplies and internal power supplies for 99/4. I heard horror stories of people blowing their power supply. What did they do wrong?

There is no motor control jack on the TI-99/2. Sorry, i was busy on the weekend with Ds990 and TI-99/4. Will get back to the 99/2 soon.

That would be awesome. I could only afford a trip from Europe to the USA when I combine it somehow with the Chicago Faire. With your guess you are probably correct. Some earlier documents show: "Personal Product Division" but that might have been migrated into the Consumer Products Division. Anybody knows that? What do you guys think, would be find the actual Grom schematics (TMC0430) and Cpu schematics in the Semiconductor Group? The TI-990 stuff was done by the Digital Systems Group but that is not listed. Personally I would be most interested in Specifications we don't have yet or we don't even know about that they exist and printouts of the commented original source code for the operating system of the TI-99/4, TI-99/4A, TI-99/2, TI-99/4B, TI-99/5, TI-99/7, CC-40, CC-40+. That would give such a deep insight. But whoever goes there should check for what we wants. I assume you need to know the code names for several products: Ground Squirrel = TI-99/2 Armadillo = TI-99/8 ALC = Advanced Language Calculator = CC-40, sometimes also they refer to the ALC Interface or Bus, then the Hex-Bus is meant Product 359 = TI Extended Basic Home Computer = TI-99/4 (there was only one in the beginning) Lonestar Console = ??? (also CC-40?) Here is my list of known Specification we are missing: Hex-Bus™ Interface Peripheral Specification (Spec, 1982-10-08) Hex-Bus™ Peripheral Bus Specification Hex-Bus™ Printer Software Functional Specification Hex-Bus™ Wafertape Software Functional Specification Hex-bus Cable sketches (Spec, 1983-04-11) Lonestar Console Intelligent Peripheral Bus Software Design Specification Hex-Bus™ Generic I/O Product Specification Advanced Language Calculator Product A Functional Specification Advanced Language Calculator Microtape Peripheral Functional Specification Disk Peripheral Hardware Specification (also known as 'Home Computer Disk Peripheral Hardware Specification') Approaches to a Double Density Disk Controller Design for the 99/4X (Spec, 1982-01-11) 99/4 Interface Considerations, DS/SD Disk Controller Electrical Specifications (Spec, 1982-07-13) Data Sheet for FDC9216 Floppy Disk Data Separation from Standard Microsystems Corporation (1981) Disk Drive without Power Supply, TI Specification 1040367 NEC uPD765 Single/Double Density Floppy Disk Controller Data Sheet (Spec, 1980-10) Functional Requirements for a Dual Density 5¼ Floppy Disk Controller Board(Spec, 1982-02-08) Home Computer Disk Peripheral Product Specification General Requirements for IC’s, Spec 1500005 TI QRAs 10273 – Product Qualification TI QRAs 10332 TI QRAs 10348 TI QRAs 10349 – IC Qualification TI QRAs 16237 FCC part 15, subpart J FCC Rules and Regulations, Part 15 Sub-parts, A, B, & H and Part 2, Subpart J FCC Docket 20780 FCC Docket 20780, Part 15, Subparts H and I National Safe Transit Pre-shipment Test Procedure CSA STD C22.2-154 MIL STD 105 UL STD 114 MIL STD 810B MIL STD 461 MIL STD 462 MIL STD 461A; 462 Methods CS01, CS02, CS06, RS01, RS02, RS03 UL STD 461A; 462 Methods CS01, CS02, CS06, RS01, RS02, RS03 Home Computer Basic Language Specification (Spec, 1979-04-12, Revision 4.1) also known as 'TI-99/4 Home Computer Basic Language Specification' Product 359 Basic Language Specification (Spec, 1980-01-28) Product 359 Basic Subprogram Specification (Spec, 1980-01-28) Product 359 Basic Sprite Specification(Spec, 1980-01-28) Product 359 Basic Interpreter Expansion RAM Peripheral Support Software Specification (Spec, 1980-01-28) Product 359 Basic Language Implementation and Verification Specification (Spec, 1980-01-28) Specification of a Texas Instruments Standard for the Basic Language (Spec, 1978-06-09) TI-99/4A Console Basic Software Specification (Software Spec) TMC0350 128-K Bit Rom Electrical Specification Speech Module Spec. 1034759 TMS 5200 (old TMS 0285) Voice Synthesis Processor Data Manual TI-99/4 ALC Support Package (Spec) Home Computer Graphics Language Specification Home Computer Monitor Specification System Monitor Specification Graphics Language Monitor Specification Home Computer Floating Point Specification Home Computer Equation Calculator Specification Home Computer system memory, CRU, and interrupt mapping specification Software Development for the Texas Instruments Home Computer (Spec, 1979-05-24) Home Computer Functional Specification, also known as 'TI-99/4 Home Computer Functional Specification' Detailed System Specification RAM Expansion Specification Infrared Controller Specification Cassette Peripheral Specification I/O bus evaluation I/O Cable Specification Texas Instruments (DSG) Specification Control Drawing 984039 “Keyboard, Unencoded, without Keytops” TI EPN3621 Thermal Character Printhead Specification TI DSG Dwg. LU2214191 “Description, PVOLTs IC” – functional description of 2543 TI DSG Dwg. 2210840 “IC, Switching Voltage Regulator” – data sheet on 2543 TI DSG Dwg. LU2214194 “Specifications, Motor Drive IC” – func. descrip. 2444A TI DSG Dwg. 2210843 “Integrated Circuit, Motor Drive” – data sheet on 2444A TI DSG Dwg. 999256 “Motor, Stepping Paper Drive” TI DSG Dwg. LU2214192 “Specification, Power Good IC MOG 2613” – func. descrip. 2613 TI DSG Dwg. 2211371 “Integrated Circuit, Power Good” – data sheet on 2613 TMC0430 Graphics Read Only Memory Specification (Specification 1015960) TMS4732 Read Only Memory Manual TMS-4732/4364 Read Only Memory Specification TMS-4016 Random Access Memory Specification TMS4027 Random Access Memory Manual TMS4116 Random Access Memory Manual TMS9901 Input/Output Controller Manual ASTEC RF Module Specification (TI Specification 1501513) TMS 9918A Video Display Processor Preliminary Description (Spec) TMS9918 Video Display Processor Specification (Spec), TMS9918 VDP Video Display Processor Data Manual (Data Manual, 1979-06-25, Revised) 9918A Data Sheets TMS9919 Sound Generator Controller Specification (Spec, 1979-10-16, Released) Sound Generator, SN94624 (Spec) SN76489AN (TMS9919) Data Specification for the Sound Generator RS-232/Parallel Port Software Design Specification (Spec) TMS9902 Asynchronous Communications Controller Specification Sheet (Spec) T DNCS.EM3278 [information on the operation of a TI 911 terminal] T DNCS.EMDIAL [information on the operation of a TI 820 terminal] SYNC-ANYNC Manual (TI#2223206-0001) TI 99/8 Personal Computer (Spec) TEC 380 (Spec) CF-40051 CRT Controller Gate Array Specification (Hardware Spec) CF-40052 I/O Controller Gate Array Specification (Hardware Spec) Ground Squirrel Mechanical Drawing Package (Hardware Spec) Ground Squirrel System Hardware Specification (Hardware Spec) Ground Squirrel Keyboard Specification (Hardware Spec) Ground Squirrel Software Module Specification (Hardware Spec) Ground Squirrel RAM Expansion Cradle Specification (Hardware Spec) Ground Squirrel ALC I/O Peripheral Bus Specification (Hardware Spec) Ground Squirrel System Software Specification (Software Spec) Ground Squirrel “Learn to Program” Tutor Specification (Software Spec) VDE STD 380 [Performance Spec] JIS STD (tbd) [Performance Spec] Home Computer Video Monitor Specification (Hardware Spec) Solid State Software™ Module Specification (Hardware Spec) Specification for PCB Mount Double Row Right Angle Header TI Part Number 1044501

Hi Fabrice! We are still troubleshooting my DS990-1 unit. I am wondering if your DIP switch on the blue Processor board has any of its pin set to active? In total there are 8pins on that DIP switch. Mine was set with none active. John from Australia has pin 7 active. From the photos on old-computers.com one could imagine that pin 6 is active on your Processor board, but it is no safe bet. Can you confirm that? Do you have any documentation for this machine which is not on bitsavers.org? Here is some collected information: http://www.ti99.eu/?page_id=4416&lang=en I did a lot of tracing of the signals on the mainboard. Also interesting is that the -5V are not forwarded from the test pin to the actual card slots, only to one of the power supply slots. So each board has to create the -5V if it needs it. Currently we try to get the minimum config of cards (Processor, Memory, VDU) to run to let it display a LOAD ERROR. That would be awesome. It does that on the DS990-1 unit from the Australian guy when he only runs the machine with three cards (and it is still his problem even when all cards are installed). Since the original power supply didn't output any voltages, we replaced the original power supply solution by a PC power supply and are driving the board like this. Then we figured that the CPU on the Processor board is broken, so we temporarly used the 9900 from the Floppy card and suddenly the CPU showed correct signals on the oscilloscope afterwards, so I ordered replacement CPUs. I also ordered replacement for the ram chips, TMS 4116. And the two PROM chips in U63 and U64 had some broken legs. Until know I never had a video signal on the VDU output pins, only two sync signals.. For the next tests it would be really awesome to know how the DIP SWITCH is set on your machine. Thanks, Klaus

i hope to join online again

Amazing Progress mizapf! Sorry I had no time to test the 99/2 with your questions. I was busy with a broken TV, and cleaning up the boards of the DS990-1, another candidate for emulation Short time ago I talked with Steve Eggers, also the 99/4B was a topic, he published a photo of a waxwing board (99/4B) on his website https://aug.99er.net/images/Unreleased/994btop.jpg https://aug.99er.net/unreleased.htm The story is that once a member came to the group meeting who had got the board from a TI employee. So Steve made a photo. The rest is history. The photographed board looks really naked. What I find interesting about the 99/4B is the two unique buses. Also I have heard from TI employees, back then the primary engineering stuff was busy with 99/4A, 99/8 and peripherals. So the 99/4B and 99/5 were done in a seperate team (or teams). Steve had the following documents: - TI-99/4B Block Diagram - TI-99/5 Block Diagram - 99/5 Memory Map - TI-994B "Waxwing 4B" Schematics All documents that Steve had are with Ksarul now. We could find more information if somebody goes to the TI Archive library, located here https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/smu/00063/smu-00063.html Sometime in the past TI donated the whole archive to a library, occupying over 1500 cubic feet of material. I got this information when I asked TI support about buying/getting some TI-99 internal documents this year. Regarding prototypes or board survivors: afaik Michael Becker is the former owner of your 99/5. I only know that Lee (Labtech1) had a waxwing board once but it got sold with his 99/8. Besides that nothing.

awesome development progress!