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Fantastic list. I assumed the military used the chips, after all... It is Texas Instruments! But, I'll never know what that hardware was actually like or how well it performed, but it makes me happy to know we have a family member on our desks. Thank you. I love this thread.

Thanks for the lesson. Now I need to crack the books... Hobby engage!

Excellent.

Would you know what Operating System was used? Are they just 'bare metal' programming, or was there a DOS or OS for the game machines? I know next to nothing about the subject.

Cool! Nice pull. Otis has been around. Wikipedia - "The company pioneered the development of the "safety elevator", invented by Otis in 1852, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail." Hmm... 9900 is "Obsolete". Is there a Texas Instruments follow-on chip-set for the 9900 series with some compatibility or is it a fully Dead-End technology?

Thank you.

Very interesting. Thanks. Our mail inserting machines never had issues at the CPU level on the board. They seemed to work all day, everyday pumping out 4,000 stuffed, sealed, weighed and metered envelopes an hour. However, occasionally an I/O chip connecting the board to the noisy mechanical monster would blow and let the magic smoke out. As we all know, if you let the smoke out of a chip it no longer works. They would de-cap themselves quite nicely. "Signal Interpretation" meaning rail-switches, or signals? Or was it data on train position, ticket sales, or even tea inventory? Any way, it was our little CPU doing real work in the real world.

Just thought I'd ask... Does anyone know other products that ran the 9900 family of chips? For instance, I worked at Bell+Howell Phillipsburg Division as a repair Technician fixing their giant mail inserting machines. They had the TMS 9995 chip on the main controller board running the real-time hardware. It was a circus of electric motors, driving cams and chains that pushed paper statements (and stacks of your checks for banks) down the guide, vacuum pump for sucking up envelope flaps and the envelope, electric eyes that told the CPU paper had arrived in certain areas, lick the envelope with a wet brush triggered by a solenoid, driving shafts with individual cams that operated arms that pulled z-folded paper onto the track, all the time talking with an Italian paper feeder and cutting machine called a FIMA and one or more Pitney Bose mail stamping machines. Whew! It was glorious! I always wanted to do a data dump off that thing and read the code.

There must be a list of all PEB boards that were made and what they were for. Anyone have a link? Just dreaming here.

While visiting the Apple complex I saw the Apple I. It had a wood case. Major flashback when I saw your setup. Cool.

Well, in theory I own a nearly functioning, actual Zeno board. The real deal. It's only a theory though, because there is a chance it got purged. I have moved 5 times in the last 8 years. My things have a habit of walking away.

I just jumped on the ZX Spectrum Next kickstarter as backer 2590. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1835143999/zx-spectrum-next?ref=nav_search THAT is a good way to go.

Why did I buy a PEB box way back when? I wanted to save files on Floppy Disks and use an MX dot-matrix printer to print out my Extended Basic source code, business bills/papers, 99er Club News, college homework and get 'up-to-date' technical computer information on far-away dial-up BBS's. I obtained a PEB box with an RS232 card so I could dial-up on a POT's (Plain Old Telephone) land-line at home with my Modem to connect to BBS's (Bulletin Board Service). I used the TI Terminal Emulator II cartridge and speech synthesizer to have my computer 'speak the text' on a BBS while I did other things, like build model airplanes. The TI Terminal Emulator II cartridge is used to control how the 99/4A talks with other computers using a Modem, with an added ability to speak the text files you download. People would upload articles, tips, source code, news, sports, and politics in plain ASCII Text files to these Servers. You could peruse just the files (then up or download them) or read the text-only scroll provided/edited by the BBS owner. Just before BBS's died, due to the early Internet, they started "ASCII Art" as well. There was some AMAZING art made. Some guys would have a dedicated computer (I think I remember Apples, PC's and even 1 or 2 TI's) running BBS software in their home, and paid for a dedicated land-line (some had MANY!) waiting for people to dial. You could upload and download files from the BBS. I remember getting a $300 phone bill one month because of this "Hobby"! Back then you had to pay extra for Long-Distance phone calls. One of my favorites was in New York. I lived in CA. Many weekends and after work hours were spent doing it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BBS_software

No photos until I clean out the garage this summer and find it, but I'm wanting to finish my Zeno board Mod. I was sooooooo close, way back in the day. So... I actually don't count. I'm a B.S.'n wanna be.

Well, Linus Torvalds just plugged ahead because he wanted a computer all his own. He did not have Maker communities, the Internet and CAD. We could design a 100% open source platform, making a 1:1 version of our beloved 99/4A, with logical places to extend it so others can add on to it. All we need is a really well thought out Mobo design and populate it with the exact same chips off of a 99/4A. The magic would be in a truly modular design. GPIO pin breakouts and pluggable areas. If we are really clever a PEB board design Mobo could be acheived that doubles as a new and modern console Mobo with room for experimenters HAT's. Leave the power supply, keyboard, mouse and all of that up to the community. With a more modern (laughs) CPU like the TMS-99105 real computing power could be had with full backward compatibility. Added data lines, clock, for a new (extended) wider bus would have to be added for a larger pin CPU. Am I WAY off? A configurable, modular Mobo is all I'm talking about. No need to reinvent the wheel.

I'm not enamored with a full FPGA-based system. Old Iron, er... Silicon is like a shiny old Harley. So... I'd prefer: NICE! http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/TMS99105/ "Texas Instruments TMS 99105 is the third generation of 16-bit microprocessors. The family includes all instructions from the two previous generations - TMS9900 and TMS9995, and fully object-code compatible with them. New instructions, included in the TMS 99105, are 32-bit arithmetic and logic, bit test, signed multiply and divide, and stack-related instructions. In addition to these new instructions, it is possible to re-define unused processor opcodes as new instructions. This can be achieved either with the help of an attached processor (i.e. co-processor), or by using a Macrostore feature. The Macrostore allows system designers to map unused microprocessor opcodes to custom functions located in a memory address space, which is separate from main memory. This allows the CPU to access up to 128 KB memory (64 KB of main memory + 64 KB of Macrostore memory). It is also possible to split main memory into two memory segments - 64 KB instruction segment and 64 KB data segment. In this case maximum addressable memory size is increased to 192 KB. The TMS99105 family uses memory-to-memory architecture. The main advantage of this architecture is that the set of CPU registers (called "Workspace") can be located anywhere in memory. This architecture makes saving and restoring of the contents of all CPU registers as simple as switching the base address of the workspace. The disadvantage of this architecture is that the processor speed is highly dependent on memory speed. The 99105 CPUs have external clock frequency 24 MHz, which is divided by four internally. It takes three or more machine cycles for the CPU to execute any instruction when no wait states are required to access the memory. This translates to maximum execution speed 2,000,000 instructions per second or less. Execution speed drops significantly when the processor is used with slow memory - instructions may execute up to two times slower when memory access requires 1 wait-state, or up to 3 times slower when 2 wait-states are required. The TMS99105 is almost identical to TMS99110 16-bit processor, except that the TMS99110 has 1 KB on-chip Macrostore memory with pre-programmed Floating Point instructions. Texas Instruments also planned to release TMS99120 microprocessor which was supposed to include commonly used utilities for PASCAL language as Macrostore instructions."

Can a list of these major differences be catalogued so we can all ruminate? A view from 10,000 feet so to speak.

I voted "Hell Yes!". With that said, I assumed a few things were implied in this NEW 99X Console... <ENGAGE PIPE_DREAM MODE>… NOW! ======= Please, keep the old TI Boot Screen. HARDWARE: Use the original ROM for fast boot and operations. No changes, only enhancements to what already exists. I love the internal structure of our TI 99/4A’s memory. Even as dumb as I am, I was able to wrap my head around its internal boundary’s/functions. All physical ports should be replicated with their original function. They will of course be enhanced with added functionality (Data/Control Line Pads/Through Holes) above and beyond their original use. All of the I/O devices will be expected to change over time. However, all old hardware should have the ability to plug-in and fully function as intended by the Texas Instruments Engineers of the day. Think PEB, MBX, joysticks (blech), etc.. HARDWARE ENHANCEMENTS: Built-in, or Add-in Console/PEB Mobo 32K RAM, F18A video 40/80 (breakouts for future changes), Speech Synthesizer, RS232 etc.. I would look for an additional path to current “hardware standards” for adding new Printers, keyboards, mice, USB, Storage (Every Floppy drive known to man, MFM, IDE, SCSI, SSD, SD card, to thumb drives), monitors and joysticks. For instance, the ability to use a USB 3.0 device is absolute overkill, but it should be supported, or the ‘ability to be supported’ in future changes. Think access to data and control lines. Maybe GPIO HAT board connectors and the like. CPU? Obviously it must be in the 9900 family with full backward compatibility and ‘Overclock’ switching as needed (Original MHz as standard unless CPU won’t). 16/32/64-Bit? ROM/GROM: Yes. Should not be touched, unless there are known bugs that could/should be euthanized. RAM, GRAM? Yes. ======= SOFTWARE: Backward compatibility with most, if not all, software and cartridges. It should use the native Assembly Language, Basic and Extended Basic we are all comfortable with. SOFTWARE ENHANCEMENTS: Add as NATIVE, or plug-in upgradable GNU tools like GCC and Loki’s fabulous SDL (Simple Directmedia Layer) v2.0. In this way we can all dive into C, C++, Java Script, Python, and Objective-C. ======= The 99X Console Mobo might be a PEB card (or cards) with many ports. That same Mobo could be plugged into a small External-Console-Case with many ports, also connected via a modern version of the Firehose connector to the PEB. So, my version of the new 99X would be a Mobo with really well thought out card edge connectors, GPIO HAT connectors in a nice 3D printed console case. Old Keyboards could be added as a peripheral or all the way up to modern PC style WiFi keyboards and mice. New replaceable/reproduceable open source printed circuit Mobo with pluggable chips might be nice. I'm thinkin' embrace, love and keep the old, but extend it to the moon. Just sayin’… <DISENGAGE PIPE_DREAM MODE>… now.

A small amount of Computer Networking for city governments and non-profits, and (slowly) building Flight Simulator computers. Right now I'm building a Ryzen based PC that will run Prepar3D Flight Simulator software with 6 monitors. This will be the 5th Simulator so far. I have a couple of project cars in the back yard, a 1981 Alfa Romeo Spider, and a 1968 Ford Fairlane. The Spider is real rough but runs, and the Fairlane is in pieces. Build IKEA furniture for the wife every other weekend. I am trying my hand at gardening in the back yard. So far, just a lot of mud. Programming water timers needs to be rethought! Maybe a TI-994A running an X10 network... Most of my free time is spent with Family. I can't think of a better way to spend a life. God Bless you All!

The very idea of this device, the F18A (80 column/sprite enhancement), the TIPI (remote/Internet access/storage), and dreams like a possible new OS/DOS, actual easy to setup GNU GCC compatibility (soon I hope), make the TI an amazing ever changing and resilient platform. The TI is a good Hobby. I am glad I bumped into it when I was a young man. This is fun. How about some USB fun? Anyone for a waterfall SDR# interface with an RTL-SDR? http://www.rtl-sdr.com/ Ok, OK, it takes WAY too much horsepower. That's IMPOSSIBLE... Wait... Unless we compile Forth into... (Stranger things have happened)

For reference material, this might be of interest. No need to reinvent the wheel when you have the original wheel blueprints... http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/microsoft-ms-dos-early-source-code/ PC DOS version 1.0, which supported only floppy disks, was shipped when IBM first released their PC in August 1981. Microsoft then substantially rewrote the software to support subdirectories and hard disks; version 2.0 was released with the IBM PC-XT in March of 1983. Microsoft retained the rights to the operating system and licensed it to other computer manufacturers, calling it MS-DOS. With the permission of Microsoft Corporation, the Computer History Museum is pleased to make available the source and object code to Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system versions 1.1 and 2.0, for non-commercial use.

I'll have to dust-off my machine for this.

Ksarul I'll be looking for that. Thanks!

Many moons ago, I attempted to build a Zeno board for my TI. It ended in failure, but I always felt it was a simple error somewhere. This thread gets me thinking and hopeful that I might be able to resurrect it. Maybe I'll get some time at the end of summer... Anyone have experience with a Zeno?

For a brief period in my life I worked on video camera's. I pretended to repair them, and the company pretended to pay me. Early on, I brought my cassette player and (beige) TI 99/4A to work and wrote a small program that would produce color bars, and different size grid patterns on a monitor. I used this setup to help align the videcon tubes in the cameras. No. I was not a good video camera repair person. But I had fun using the TI at work!