Next Machine to display - TI/99

Hackerspace
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@Team_VCC per our discussion at our last commitee meeting.

I’ve found a few resourcse for the TI/99 project:

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Any chance we could talk @urbite into giving a talk about the good ole days at TI about designing and programming for this machine?

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I could (and would) definitely give a talk. I’d need some time to clear out the cobwebs, collect my thoughts, and put together a presentation.

When would this need to happen? I’ve just finished my 4th week into a new contract job so I need at least a few more weeks for things to settle in.

How long would the talk need to be? Any interest in specific topics? Here are a few I can think of right away.

  • Differences between the 99/4 and 99/4A. There were a changes to the ROM code that had repercussions likely not forseen by TI (and defeated one of their business strategies).
  • Why code couldn’t be executed from the 16K of RAM in the 99/4A console
  • Although the processor chip in the console was a 16-bit chip with corresponding 16-bit data bus, the bus width in the cartridges and expansion bus was 8 bits. Thus the processor chip was artificially throttled - and done so by adding more chips to do the 16 bit to 8 bit bus conversion at additional cost
  • TMS9900 processor architectural quirks caused 16 bit writes to be as slow as a single 8-bit write
  • What’s a GROM and GPL?
  • The TMS9900 processor: no stack and hence no stack pointer
  • Assembly language programming - development tools and debugging
  • The TMS9918A graphics processor - capabilities and limitations
  • PARSEC - management only had one requirement for the game
  • TI 99/4A vs Commodore - a price war TI had no chance of winning
  • Sofmachine - a TI 99/4A Activision wannabe startup at the wrong time
  • Fitting a game into an 8KB or 16KB cartridge ROM.
  • Lubbock - why put a leading edge product development team in the middle of…?

What TI 99/4A topics are of interest to the vintage folks? Should the talk be technical, historical, or a mix of both?

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what is this sorry i missed the meeting?

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Personally, I would be most interested in a mix of history and technical.

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I have some kind of controller from Fred’s WoW that has a TMS9900. Large pc board w/classic old school design/layout w/ 2x byte wide banks of RAM and EPROM memory. Can bring in if we decide to have class(es). Reverse engineer to??

There’s enough material listed for probably more than 1 class.

Yep, me too.

Meanwhile:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/the-inside-story-of-texas-instruments-biggest-blunder-the-tms9900-microprocessor
http://www.cpushack.com/2015/02/05/ti-tms9900sbp9900-accidental-success/

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About three to four weeks would be good. Do you mind if we do a video recording of it for posterity?