Control Data TI

[Tempest]

Anyone ever see one of these?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/251736467693?item=251736467693

 

Looks like a later beige TI-99 with a a modified BIOS. I've never heard of this particular model, I wonder why CD decided to make these? Was there some specific project between TI and CD that these were created for or was CD planning something else?

 

 

[+Lee Stewart]

CDC had committed to the TI-99/4A for PLATO. When TI abandoned the 4A, CDC continued with their own stamp on it. There are a few posts on this forum that mention it.

 

...lee

[Tempest]

Oh PLATO. Totally forgot about that. Makes sense. Are these particularly rare? Anything else special about the BIOS other than the changed graphics?

[+Ksarul]

They are not really that rare (they made at least 1,500 of them, from message traffic I've seen in the past)--but the OS they modified was the V2.2 one, so third-party cartridges are pretty much locked out. They also did PEBs and the various peripheral cards with the CD branding. They are among the last TI 99/4As manufactured, however. In the 2000-2004 timeframe, a lot of these were sold on eBay, along with the PEBs and cards, by someone who had located a large stash of them.

[+Lee Stewart]

Oh PLATO. Totally forgot about that. Makes sense. Are these particularly rare? Anything else special about the BIOS other than the changed graphics?

 

Others would have to speak to their rarity; but, I suspect that they are fairly rare compared to the sum total of TI-99/4As out there. I do not think there is anything otherwise different except, perhaps, that they are the QI 2.2 consoles that will not run cartridges that do not have any GROMs, i.e., ROM-only cartridges like @Willsy’s TurboForth or my fbForth 2.0 (SSP ). But, see How to identify a QI console.

 

...lee

[+OLD CS1]

Neat! I have only read about these; never seen one in the wild.

[InfernalKeith]

In the late 1980s I saw a whole room of these with PEB's, set up in the basement of some education center in Ohio where I was filling out paperwork for some kind of high school jobs training thing (the details are lost to my fuzzy memory now). I didn't get a chance to turn one on or do anything with them. I was startled to see TI gear with a different nameplate. Never seen one 'in the wild' outside of that.