kl99
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Posts posted by kl99
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Many of us have more manuals than those that came with the computer. Some came with accessories, like the Editor/Assembler or Pascal compiler manuals. But then there are also those extra manuals, like the TI 99/4A Technical manual. It contains some info about the machine and circuit diagrams for the boards in the console and the expansion box.
Now I happened to come across a couple of manuals I've never seen before myself. One is the 99/4A repair manual. It's quite interesting. It does of course contain several flow charts for how to troubleshoot certain problems, but it also contains not only wiring diagrams and IC descriptions, but also theory of oepration for various designs in the computer. Like the 16/8 bit memory conversion circuits, etc.
I also got an Expansion box theory of operation and training manual. It contains a detailed description of the expansion box (referred to as the "Johnny box") and descriptions of design considerations for the peripheral cards. That does include the PAL equations, something I've never seen anywhere else. Frequent references to the TI 99/4B in this manual, without any description of exactly what that is.
What do you think, you TI users out there? Is this something rare, or do you already have this stuff on some server or in a drawer?
Hi apperson850!
Did you have any time to compare your documents to what ksarul was pointing to?
If you have some documentation that is not digitized yet, it would be very valuable to archive this.
BR Klaus
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Let's hope the guy never finds out what really happened to him.
What a clever way to get rid of your enemy.
What about the attractive woman? Did you get a chance to kiss here?
Hearing about this reminds me again on the 'Halt and Catch Fire' series, where one main cast is working for TI and in the meeting where they decide to discontinue the 99/4A.
BR Klaus
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Have a nice Welcome!
Here are some technical documents, that got preserved already:
http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Diagnostic%20Software%20from%20TI%20manual.pdf
http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/Hardware/Schematics.pdf
Maybe a bell rings, if you hear the names Rick Payne or Herman Schuurman? First one was working in Quality control as well, and also had to face the Power Supply Replacement Issue.
Later was working in Development when the 99/4 and 99/7 were specified/planned. He wrote the DSR for CS1 and DSK and was involved with Text2Speech.
If you like to see some information about the TI-99, I just released some unboxing video of the original 10" TI Color Monitor, but you can further find 99/8, 99/2 and Hex-Bus Hardware Videos and Information:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwTlFDfcbVnjdzXpAt7G5oQ
I am wondering which were the main hardware issues in the support center? Did you repair only consoles or other hardware as well? With only being 36 years old, I have only heard stories of how relaxed the situation was when you had a problem with the TI. You brought the faulty console to the support center. Instead of testing it while the customer was in, he directly got a boxed console and left the support center with a big smile.
I am still wondering how to find out which 99/4 power supply is required for the 99/4. Afaik there are two types, one AC and one DC. If you use the wrong one, you blow the power supply. Lately I have got a 99/4 without a power supply and have
yet to disassemble itto at least check out the innerts to help me find out. I should have a standard 99/4A US power supply.Here are some pics of the opened unit:
Those comments in your technical guide would be very valuable I guess. The console is still the base unit for most of us 99ers.
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Yes. To format a floppy disk, just tape:
OPEN #1:"HEXBUS.FORMAT.MEDIA.device_number" CLOSE #1
with TI-BASIC on a computer
So I don't need to get Disk Manager II for formatting disks? I seem to have forfotten about that important addition to the TI-OS, even though I now remember having read it once.
I anyway have had trouble using the internal Disk Drive from the Hex-Bus Disk Controller. I used the external connector of it to connect a second disk drive. Will take the controller apart once I have more time.
Btw: I was able to communicate from the 99/2 to the Pc (Usb to Serial) via Hex-Bus Rs232. I am using OPEN/CLOSE/PRINT/INPUT/LIST so far.
However the documentation says, there is no support for OLD/SAVE within Hex-Bus Rs232, so I don't see an easy Bootstrap option for Web99 like OLD RS232.BA=9600 on the 99/4A to load a program sent by another system.
The same limitation is true for the Hex-Bus Modem.
BUT i have aquired the TI-74 Pc Interface, which provides you with connection from the Intelligent Peripheral Bus (the new name for Hex-Bus) to a parallel port.
I will try to simulate a whole Hex-Bus Device from Pc side by imidating the communication protocol. First on Windows, later maybe Raspberry PI, Beaglebone, Arduino or some other thing.
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Thank you very much! The size seems to be different than the Pc99 ones. Although the Pc99 files contain everything from those files, but still that might do the trick.
BR
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afaik the Pc99 Dumps are incomplete. Can you share your HSGPL fileS?
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Congrats Jim,
How about some unboxing videos on youtube
Please take a lot of photos as well. I would like to give them a nice section on www.ti99.eu
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SmartProgrammer 1984 July,
Questions & Answers:
What happened to the rumors about Toys R Us and/or GE buying the rights to produce the99/4A?
Last we heard about this item was that TI was asking too much money for the rights, so both companiesdecided not to buy! Also, everything has been quiet on the 99/8. At one time we heard that Control DataCorp. was thinking about buying this or a version of the 99/5, but that was a long time ago.Micropendium 1994 December,
Feedback: "Hoax" a misnomer
As an ex-user of the 99/4A, 99/8 and the Geneve, I still stay current with the TI community. The reasonI'm writing is this: I was told by a subscriber of your publication that there was an article about a hoaxregarding Texas Instruments developments, namely the 99/5 "Waxwing 5," the 99/8 "Armadillo" and so on. Well, I used to own a 99/8 with all the Hexbusperipherals (Wafertape, printer/plotter, 80-column printer, 5.25-inch DSDD disk drive/controller, 300-baudmodem, RS232 interface and the Video Interface for the CC-40) and the schematics for each including the99/8 itself. These were sent to me by Mike Bunyard of the Bunyard Manual fame with his own personalnotes regarding the "Armadillo" project. I've held in my hands one of the very few "Waxwing 5"motherboards and have a copy or the schematics and I have photographs of the motherboard. I've ownedsuch peripheral cards as the IEEE-488, EPROM programmer card, the Super Modem card, the 128K cardand TI's DSDD card.
So, as far as a hoax goes, I don't know about that! It seems to me that someone is very misinformed or Iwas told the wrong thing by my friend.Steve Eggers, Abilene, TX
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PHROM = Speech Rom ?
Here is another internal document that covers the 99/4B in detail:
There is a great interview from Dan Eicher with Don Bynum taken in 2002. Here are some extracts:
Q.Please tell us anything and everything about the 99/8.
A.This was an awesome machine for its time. It supported real development without the horriblerestrictions of a 64K address space. Further, it leveraged every technology that we had found usefulby third-party developers on the 99/4A. Politically, consumer group could not produce a machine with80-character text, but we planned for the eventual elimination of that concern (unfortunately thatconcern was eliminated when the business was shot down.)Q.How many units were produced?
A.I don't know how many were actually produced. I left before the first units were built. Herb Shanzersent me one which I kept around for a few years then scrapped.
Q.Who were the engineers involved?
A.There were a bunch, from all over TI.
Q.How compatible was it with the 99/4A?
A.The best I can recall, every single cartridge application worked. Machine language programs, of the"well behaved program" category made famous by Bill Gates, from third parties all worked, as far asI know.
Q.What problems did it have?
A.The joystick interface on the unit I had had X&Y crossed over on one of the sticks. A trivial changewas needed to fix that. Otherwise it was simply amazing. I think the one I had may have had 512K ofRAM … at a time that the IBM PC was not coming near that for $5,000.
Q.What was your involvement with the 99/7, 99/5, 99/2?
A.I was involved with the 99/2. I scared Timex out of the computer business. It was a very well executedsilly idea put in place because some sales guys were losing a few sales to Timex at some schools. It wasapparent that technology would overtake Timex as they were running margins inadequate to sustaintechnology renewal. We just made that extremely apparent for Timex management.Q.What was your relationship with Michael Bunyardas he tended to do a lot of work on 4A hardware?
A.What a great guy! Mike worked for Alan Lawson, who reported to me. He was the architect of thehardware virtual memory design for the 99/8. His chip worked the first time through. Lots of peopleat TI, including a few in semiconductor, rather publicly declared that the design would never work.It not only worked … the first chips off the fab worked flawlessly!
Q.Do you know who wrote the OS (ROM and GROM 0) for the 4A?
A.Yes, Johnny Ackers was the head of that group.Q.How did the idea of moving towards the Hexbus come along?
A.The Calculator Division was building handheld, today we would call them mobile, computing devicesand were moving up in complexity. It was apparent that LCDs were going to become viable for muchlarger screen sizes and that a true portable, handheld, not just luggable, computer was going tohappen. They needed low cost, low power peripherals. We anticipated the need for similar capabilityat the low end of the home computer line and possibly in future home networking functions (this waslooking out a decade or more with the very murky crystal ball available to product marketing folksthen and now). It was an easy decision to sign on to include Hexbus in future designs. Today's USBis a much more functional descendant of Hexbus at TI and GPIB4 and HIL at HP.
Q.It was rumored the 99/4 was to use the 9980 — an 8-bit version of the 9900 — is that why the bus was"crippled" out to the PEB?
A.I think you mean 9995. This pre-dated me, but it was actually a reasonable cost compromise. The truthis that the 8-bit bus was three orders of magnitude less damaging to speed than was the wretchedGROM-based implementation of the O/S.Q.The 99/4B design was not implemented. Was the reason because it came along too late?
A.Please clarify the question.
Q.I found the info I have on the 99/4B. Can you tell me who was the lead engineer and why it was neverproduced?
A.Beats me! If there really was such a thing, it would have had Alan Lawson as the lead engineer. WhenI left, our real plan was to create a stripped down 99/8 to replace the 99/4A, about 2 years out, but wewere not thinking of retaining the /4(A) part of the product identity as it implied a particular level ofcapability that would have understated what was going to be available. At the same time the 99/ partof the identity was well associated with easy to use technology that enriched the life of a family. Giventhe consumer research that we had done, I would be very surprised to learn that Herb would havetried to roll out a "B" extension of the family.Q.The TI-99/4B was a revamped 4A based on the TMS9995 processor and using the Hexbus forexpansion (floppies, hard disks, serial and parallel ports, etc.) RAM and speech were to be added bythe user to the console. It ran between five and ten times faster than the 99/4A and could be slowedto 4A speed at power-up ("Press 1 for slow, 2 for normal, 3 for fast"). We had a contest to see who couldsurvive to level two in Parsec. (I've also seen these called Waxwings.) The speed feature, developed forthe 99/8 was necessary for many of our educational games. The 99/8 architecture delivered some muchfaster execution that the games became pretty much unplayable. Arcade players would keep tryinguntil they broke the joystick, but kids trying to run Scott, Foresman software were quickly frustratedand gave up (did you have at least one teacher like that in college?).
A.I think we only made about nine of the 99/4Bs and 99/5s. All of which went to the engineering andsoftware folks.
The 99/4B described above is the stripped down 99/8. It was not slated to be marketed as a /4extension. The speed feature described above was from the 99/8 bios (and involved some trick codewhen serial interfaces and disc controllers were involved.).
The 99/5 was a 4B with speech and ROM installed at manufacture. This is a 99/8 with no p-System (wesaw a need for that as many would not need the p-System. Adding p-System was going to be a depotupgrade (about 5 minute job.)
The 99/2 was a low end unit designed to compete with the Timex Sinclair. It too was based on the 9995processor and used the Hexbus for peripherals. It was laid to rest once the 4A vs VIC-20 price warheated up.
The 99/8, also 9995 and Hexbus based (see a pattern here?) came with speech, 64K RAM, Basic andp-Code all in the console. The 4A's PEB could also be used for floppy/hard disk expansion, RS232, andup to 12 MB of RAM expansion (never tell an engineer you wanted more RAM without putting anupper limit on it). There were over 300 99/8s produced as a pre-production run just before the plugwas pulled on the whole program.
The 99/8 would support up to 128 MB of onboard RAM. It was designed to use memory chips for thelarge memory versions, that were on the S/C product roadmap, but which were not yet in production.External RAM, in the PEB was going to be an interim, and much slower, option.Q.How was the decision made to go from the classic black-and-silver 99/4A to bland beige?
A.Again, that was easy. The polished aluminum overlays were easily damaged by kids, who were ourprimary intended users, were easily damaged in handling in the factory (therefore adding cost), andserved no utilitarian purpose, so we eliminated them. My own preference would have been to stay witha black case, but ergonomic standards were emerging in Europe which dictated a lower contrast color.Q.On the 99/7 do you know if any where ever produced?
A.There were two 99/7 projects. The Ranger was also called 99/7 for a while. None of either were everbuild in the "production" sense.Some Magazine extracts:
Compute! Magazine, 1983 August:
The fall computer collection at the summer Consumer Electronics Show
...
Pre-show rumors were that TI would introduce one or two new computers, possibly the TI-99/4B and theTI-99/8. So much for rumors.
The 99/8, however; is said to be very near. Insiders say it will come with 80K RAM, built-in speech, andsell for roughly $500. Basic, Forth, Logo, and UCSD Pascal will be the available languages. The 99/4B, theysay, will fall somewhere between the 99/4A and 99/8 in features and price.
It could be that TI is somewhat gun-shy after its recent experience with the 99/2. Introduced at the winterCES, the 99/2 was an economy version of the 99/4A without color or sound. It was designed to sell for $99.Unfortunately for TI, the ongoing price war with Commodore and Atari heated up a little faster thananticipated. To compete, TI slashed the price of the 99/4A again and started another rebate program. Thisbrought the 99/4A to under $100. Unable to cut the 99/2's price accordingly, TI was forced to drop the newmodel it had spent months (and millions) developing. Now that each one of the Big Three has been burnedin a similar way — Atari with its 1200XL and Commodore with its P128 and Max Machine — they maybe more circumspect about making splashy introductions of new computers.
Although TI unveiled no new machines at CES, the company did introduce a 99/4A with a redesignedwhite housing. Word is the new plastic case is cheaper to manufacture, and that it will match the designof the coming 99/8.
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Micropendium 1989 December:
TI's unreleased legends - Products that never reached the market [by Richard Fleetwood]
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The TI-99/4B
Also about the time good things were happening with software development, TI was looking toward thefuture and the possibilities of system expansion. TI engineers played with ways to make the computersimpler to use, yet more complex. They threw together a half-dozen "all new" 99/XX computers based onmarket research and other criteria. These new computers were little more than proposals and prototypesfor the new wave of home computers that would renew the infamous home computer wars of the early1980s.
These new consoles were known as the 99/4Bs. They had a brand new memory mapper and used the bigbrother of the 99/4As microprocessor. They were equipped with the new 9995 microprocessor that enabledmuch more memory to be accessed, as well as much faster throughput of machine code. These new chipswere much more efficient than the 9900, and soon proved very capable and powerful in a small home-basedsystem. The 99/4B was equipped with 32K of memory, a faster system clock, and a semi-new keyboard.All six of these prototypes were basically hand-built and weren't meant to be marketed. They were thetesting ground for the 99/4As big brother — the 99/8.The TI-99/8
The 99/8 was TI's final attempt at making it to the top of the home computer market. At the time it wasgoing to be released, it would have been more powerful than any other home computer in its price range.(Rumors about the imminent release of the 99/8 were hot and heavy the fall of 1983, with many expectingit to be on dealer shelves in time for the Christmas rush. — Ed.)The 99/8 was equipped with 64K of memory and could be upgraded to 2 Megabytes. Unlike all othercomputers at the time, it had built-in speech capabilities. Instead of Basic as a menu selection on power-up,the 99/8 came with Extended Basic II. XB II was an upgrade of Extended Basic, with improvements ingraphics commands, string handling and new routines that made use of hexadecimal/decimal numberhandling. Also available on the power-up screen was the Pascal p-Code system.
With all these standard features, the 99/8 was in a class by itself. Also included were ports for cassette,video, AC power, and the all-new Hexbus port. The expansion port on the side of the console had 50 pins,compared to the 44 on the 99/4A. The extra pins and some juggling of signals gave the 99/8 true 16-bitperformance on its I/O bus.The cartridge port was mounted on top of the unit, and installing a cartridge consisted of inserting itstraight down instead of pushing the cartridge into the front of the console as with the 99/4A. Thekeyboard was redesigned and included several new keys to reduce dependency on the Function keys forsuch characters as ?, ", _, ', ~, |, [, ], and so forth. The FCTN key was also moved to the left side of thekeyboard, so that users could maintain full cursor control with one hand instead of two.
The 99/8 keyboard was almost four inches wider than the 4A keyboard, and touch-typing was easierbecause it felt like a full-size IBM Selectric typewriter keyboard.
Incidentally, the power-up menu of the 99/8 offered another option: system speed. You could choosebetween "slow" mode, 99/4A mode or "fast" mode. This control over operating speed made it possible tochange the speed at which a program ran. It was interesting to try to play Munch Man at full speed on the99/8 because it ran much faster than on the 4A. Similar effects were noticeable with other cartridges aswell.
250 were manufactured
In discussions with others who know about the 99/8 project, I have put together the following facts:
* The 99/8 project almost died in the prototype stage because of the complexity of the memory mapper.A big breakthrough by one engineer kept the project going.
* There were about 1,000 etched PC boards made. Only 250 of these were assembled into working units.Of these, only about 150 were considered to be final, pre-production versions. These early units, if theyhad the Pascal system installed, held the code on ROMs instead of GROMs. This was to facilitatedebugging until the final version was ready.
Speaking of Pascal, I talked with the fellow who had the responsibility of taking the actual silicon wafersfrom the SC building after etching to Singapore, where the final GROM chips were to be manufactured.He made it as far as Los Angeles before he got a call on Black Friday to come back home. That was whenhe learned that TI was getting out of the home computer business.
I'll bet that fewer than two dozen 99/8s have the Pascal system intact. My 99/8 doesn't have it. I have seenabout two dozen of the 99/8s, and none seems to be exactly the same. Each had a different "feel" and someof the operating characteristics.
TI's code name for the 99/8 project was "Armadillo," which for non-Texans is a feisty, little armoredmammal that roams the Texas plains and Hill Country. On more than one occasion, while displaying my99/8, a former or current TI employee would remark when they saw my computer, "Wow, an Armadillo!"Most of these TI'ers had heard about the project but had never seen one. The ones who had seen it whileit was being developed provided me with much of the information for this article.Next month: More on the 99/8 and software compatibility with the 99/4A, the 99/2 and the GROM box.
Micropendium 1993 August:
Reader to Reader:
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Vandsteene Carlo, Elsrakenstraat 52, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium, writes:
I'm about to write an article about the things (computers and peripherals) Texas Instruments wasgoing to release, but never did because of the withdrawal from the home computer market, now 10years ago. I've already found some (general) information about the 99/8, the GROM Box … But overhere in Belgium, it's really hard to find. I'm still looking for more information, photographs,photocopies, printouts, articles, etc, in order to get a complete (as possible) survey of what TI intendedto produce or had produced but didn't release.
That's why I address myself to you; can anyone send me some information concerning the 99/4,(99/4A), 99/4B, 99/8, 99/2, CC-40, hard drive controller, four-part RS232 card, 128K Super RAM and374K Ultra RAM card, GROM Box, smart modem, video controller? Anything would help; aphotograph you took from your 99/8 if you own one (yes, they have been sold in Texas!) or a photocopyof it out of a magazine or a brochure. I don't expect you to send me your owner's manual, but especiallydescriptions, test reports, documentation, advertising, pictures and so on (may be photocopies too).So if you have anything, could you please send it to the address above? However little it may be, it willbe well appreciated. But, there is a but, be sure that I receive it as soon as possible, because it will takea while to get the article ready in time. Thanks beforehand.
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Micropendium 1994 April,
Ah, the elusive TI-99/5
You'll probably never see one, but what the heck — wouldn't it have been nice if TI had come out with theTI-99/5, if not the TI-99/8. In the February Bugs & Bytes column we published an item that brieflyoutlined a controversy regarding the 99/5 that had appeared on the Internet and elsewhere. The focus ofthat controversy was on a so-called marketing plan for the 99/5 that allowed users to trade in their 99/4Asfor more money than they'd have to pay for a 99/5A.
Glen Bernasek, of the Cleveland Area TI-99/4A User Group, published an article in the group's newsletterdetailing some of the scuttlebutt about and photos of the 99/5. His information was provided by someonewho actually owns one. Here are some excerpts:The cassette port was replaced with a Hexbus port. The Hexbus was an eight-wire, four-bit widecommunication cable. Devices designed for the Hexbus included a floppy disk controller, a serial port,streaming tape drive, 80-column video controller and portable printers, among other things.
The TI-99/5 used a 9995 processor.
The TI-99/5 had a 32K memory expansion and speech synthesizer built into the console.
The motherboard was imprinted with "99/5 11/2/83." TI was working on it right up to the end.According to other sources, who posted information on the Internet, the 99/5 was also known as the 99/4B.It had no PEB port because it was meant only for use with Hexbus peripherals. He also reported that TIwill disavow any knowledge of the 99/5 or the 99/8 or virtually any other hardware or software meant forthe home computer market that was never actually shipped. However, he said, when he asked whetherhe could distribute such software to his user group members TI prohibited it on the basis of holding acopyright to the software it wouldn't acknowledge existed.
Other items that were developed in small quantities for the home computer market include a hard drivecontroller, a GROM box similar to a GRAM Kracker, an IEEE interface card, a 128K Super RAM card, a374K Ultra RAM card, a 4-channel music card, a PEB interface card for the 99/8 and an RS232 card withfour ports.-
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Here are the promised 99/8 and Hex-Bus notes I have discovered within the 99/4a Console and PEB Technical Manual of the 99/8 seller:
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If you compare it with 99/8 Roms, this contains the Devices in the rom1.u25 file:
RS232
RS232/1
RS232/2
DSK
DSK1
DSK2
DSK3
DSK4
HEXBUS
I couldn't find the search code for ROM only module, did you try out a ROM only module in the 99/5 cartridge port?
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TI-99/4B documents:
just to get this thread a bit more complete.
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The 99/5 has a tape port. I still haven't used the CS1/CS2 option to load/save programs (I only use my Hexbus floppy drive). I will do that. But I think that it works.Yes, it should work. The 99/8 and 99/2 have instead of the DB9 the 3 dedicated ports for Tape Recorder connection. Do you have that other cable in original?
Shouldn't the dump contain the Device HEXBUS somewhere as well?
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grom 3 is the E/A cart that was in there when you did the dump
grom 4-7 are not in use by the system it seems
grom 0-2 (99/4a uses 3 system groms as well): same token-set for TI Basic, same subprogram-set for TI Basic
But what is this in grom0?
GROM TEST 48K CPU RAM TEST64K CPU RAM TESTPHROM TST9
it's at address: >10F9
Is this in ROM for sure?
Grom0 offers next to the REVIEW MODULE LIBRARY the speed options as the 99/8:
SET SPEED
[1] NORMAL SPEED FOR GAMES
[2] FULL SPEED
Devices: CS1 and CS2 are listed in Grom0
Regarding Docs:
I have around 6 more hand written pages, mostly about 99/8, that I discovered within a Technical Manual. I will digitize them as well. Maybe it is of value for here as well.
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Thank you so much for releasing this historical piece!
After this got a hot topic I decided to do some photos of internal docs that have been coming with the 99/8.
I think I have identified:
- TI-99/4B Speech Peripheral Spec (sadly only one page)
- Hex-Bus Memory Expansion Spec
- DRam Controller Spec (is this part of the Hex-Bus Memory Expansion Spec?
- Printer 850 (Omni) Specs? or is this something else?
- Winchester Disk System Spec
I thought I had more about the 99/4B but it's only one page. Maybe these are of help. I can do high-res scans as well.
Further I have checked all disks images (transfered) that came from the 99/8 owner / TI Employee. But nothing related to 99/4B or 99/5 or 99/2.
The only thing I have found on them were 99/8 part lists, which I have published already in january.
Did you ever publish the 99/5 Memory Map?
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wow, well done
maybe the ROM bank switching is like on the 99/2. There the CF40051 I/O Controller does the Chip select.
According to your motherboard there is a CF40067 that is close to the ROM Chip.
Here is the internal doc about the CF40051 for the 99/2:
http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/99-2%20Computer/TI992_IO_Controller_Chip.pdf
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very cool! congrats!
you could try the memory editor that comes with the Gram Kracker to see the Grom Content (+dump option), the editor is completely independent from System Rom/Groms.
So if the Grom port has the same address in CPU memory as the 99/4a, it should work.
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Hi schmitzi,
again some notes regarding the cartridges v1.15c list. The european manual part numbers need to have the digits after the dash as well, as that distinguish between 99/4a and modern style of the manual.
They are further used to distinguish region/market variants. And they are used to indicate a fix.
- Video games 2 (GB/D/FR) (Mind Challengers): manual part number is .1103032-0000
- Munchman (GB): manual part number is 1103064-0200, I don't have the classic manual, but that should be 113064-0000
- Music Maker (D) Musiklehrer: manual part number is 1103050-000 (not 4 times '0')
- Text- und Dateiverwaltung (GB)(D) Personal Report Generator: manual part number is 1105729-0001
- Gestion Privée (F): manual part number is 1103021-0302
- TI-CALC (GB)(D)(F)(I): manual part number is 1103222-0300
- Schachmeister (D) (German Video Chess): manual part number is 1103023-0000
- Chisolm Trail: correct module name is Chisholm Trail
- Editor Assembler (for CC-40): part number is SS-4002
The Cyc shows "16K-Cartridge for CC-40" with part number SS-1000, while you show it as SS-3000. Maybe an owner can clarify this one.
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here you see the last 6 bytes are in use:
>FFFA - >FFFF
The Product Specification calls those 6 bytes being part of the Processor RAM (Cpu "on-chip" Ram).
The other 252 bytes of the Processor RAM are from >F000 to >F0FB (252 bytes). In total we have 258 bytes of this on-chip Processor RAM.
The 4Kybte RAM seems to be mapped from:
>E000 to >EFFF
The Video Controller is using the RAM for its purposes:
The Screen Image Table (768 bytes) is from >EC00 to >EEFF according to the Specs. This seems to be correct by verifying the dump snapshot.
>EF00 is the Screen Attribute Control Byte (in case of dump it had value >02 or 0b00000010).
The Pattern Descriptor Table is in Rom and seems like it is not mirrored into the RAM. Therefore no Character redefinition seems possible, unless you disable the internal Eprom from the Expansion Bus from your Cartridge.
I will try to find out where my Basic Program lies.
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>F000 - >F0FB
The Product Specification tells us these 252 bytes are part of the Processor RAM (Cpu "on-chip" Ram).
The other 6 bytes of the Processor RAM are from >FFFA to >FFFF. In total we have 258 bytes of this on-chip Processor RAM.
>F0FC - >FFF9 contains all "FF" (unused, address range was meant to be used by external circuit)
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when I CALL PEEK into >E000 by using CALL PEEK(-8192,P) I get values from the RAM.
>E000 - >E23F contains >00
I am using this basic program to visualize the content:
90 R=8192*7 100 CALL CLEAR 110 X=8 120 Y=1 130 FOR I=0 TO 191 140 CALL PEEK(I+R-65536,P) 150 GOSUB 390 160 X=X+1 170 IF X<32 THEN 210 180 GOSUB 300 190 Y=Y+1 200 X=8 210 NEXT I 220 CALL KEY(1,K,S) 230 IF S<>0 THEN 250 240 GOTO 220 250 R=R+I 260 GOTO 100 270 H=(D+48)+(D>9)*-39 280 CALL HCHAR(Y,X,H) 290 RETURN 300 P=I+R-7 310 D4=INT(P/4096) 320 D=D4 330 X=1 340 GOSUB 270 350 D3=INT((P-4096*D4)/256) 360 D=D3 370 X=X+1 380 GOSUB 270 390 D2=INT((P-4096*D4-256*D3)/16) 400 D=D2 410 X=X+1 420 GOSUB 270 430 D1=P-4096*D4-256*D3-16*D2 440 D=D1 450 X=X+1 460 GOSUB 270 470 D4=0 480 D3=0 490 RETURN
Here are the screenshots:
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Could be. Where do you have this information from?
Refered to within the article here:
http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/99-2%20Computer/Byte%2099-2%20article%20(0683).pdf
Also talked about/specified here:
http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/99-2%20Computer/TI992_Product_Specification.pdf
http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets%20and%20manuals/99-2%20Computer/TI992_Software_Specification.pdf
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>0000 - >1FFF System Rom (Eprom 1)
>2000 - >3FFF System Rom (Eprom 2)
>4000 - >5FFF System Rom (Eprom 3)
>6000 - >7FFF contains 'FF' (as expected)
>8000 - >86FF contains 'FF'
...
>9000 - >90FF contains 'FF'
...
>A000 - >A0FF contains 'FF'
...
>B000 - >B0FF contains 'FF'
...
>C000 - >C0FF contains 'FF'
...
>D000 - >D0FF contains 'FF'
...
>E000 - >EFFF contains 'FF' (should be RAM)
...
It looks like I did some mistake when using the CALL PEEK command. The 99/2 Manual says to use values up to 65535. But I guess they must be signed negative instead, if greater than 32767.
So peeking >E000 would be?
Decimal: 57344
CALL PEEK(57344-65536,A)
?
Will try again tomorrow (Europe Time).
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I have all this stuff and I don't know what to do with it
in TI-99/4A Computers
Posted
Hi Sinphaltimus!
I would like to have those service manuals, or at least see what you have of those.
Would give you a fair pay.
BR Klaus