Does it run PARSEC? Nice shot captain!
UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
11–20 of 76 posts
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#12HOLY COW. Thank you for this. I LOVE the Ti99/4a, its one of the first computers I ever used. I've got one up and running at home now currently and can't wait to try this.
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#13Wow. The TI-99 is such a perfect fit for this too given the chip was designed for multi-user computing in a way other home computer chips weren’t. All due to TI’s desire to use the same chip standards across all their machines big and small, IIRC.
While the CPU is a better fit than the 8 bit contemporaries, the 16kb of working memory is going to be a struggle.
It's cool because the registers are all in RAM, with a "workspace pointer" on the CPU pointing at where they are. This is slow, but a context switch is just changing that pointer.
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#14@UsagiElectric on YouTube has a series of videos on building a homebrew around the TMS9900 processor. Would be cool if a unix-like OS could be used on something like that, though sounds like this project is specifically targeting the TI-99/4A system. The TI-99/4A was the first computer I owned as a teenager. I had used TRS-80s and Apple ][ at school. I eventually bought the expansion box and a couple of accessory car…
I had one in grade school. Taught me the value of backups early in life. Spent all night typing in a game from a magazine. Started it without saving to tape first. It was so loud! Panicked and restarted the machine. Sadness ensued.
Replaced it with a C128-D. Didn’t get my first intel until I bought a 386 after graduating high school. Good times.
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#15@UsagiElectric on YouTube has a series of videos on building a homebrew around the TMS9900 processor. Would be cool if a unix-like OS could be used on something like that, though sounds like this project is specifically targeting the TI-99/4A system. The TI-99/4A was the first computer I owned as a teenager. I had used TRS-80s and Apple ][ at school. I eventually bought the expansion box and a couple of accessory car…
Same here - parents bought one for me in 1982, IIRC. By 1984 I had moved to Atari XL, but I'll always have a soft spot for the TI-99/4A, Extended Basic cartridge, speech synthesizer, cassette drive, etc.
My sister and I used to co-type programs from "Compute!". The times were so much simpler then..
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#16This is the main updated comment with the user guide and download https://forums.atariage.com/topic/380883-unix99-a-unix-like-...
Thanks. I wasn't looking forward to browsing all those pages in the hopes of finding the source. Did they never put it up on GitHub?
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#17So assuming one wanted to buy a used one of these (I had timex sinclairs around this time) how would one display the composite video nowdays?
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#18I learned to program on this exact hardware in the early 80s as a small child. It uses BASIC. It's hard drive was modem tones recorded to an analog audio tape. Its monitor was an analog TV. There was no mouse. The keyboard was built into the computer itself.
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#19@UsagiElectric on YouTube has a series of videos on building a homebrew around the TMS9900 processor. Would be cool if a unix-like OS could be used on something like that, though sounds like this project is specifically targeting the TI-99/4A system. The TI-99/4A was the first computer I owned as a teenager. I had used TRS-80s and Apple ][ at school. I eventually bought the expansion box and a couple of accessory car…
Same here - parents bought one for me in 1982, IIRC. By 1984 I had moved to Atari XL, but I'll always have a soft spot for the TI-99/4A, Extended Basic cartridge, speech synthesizer, cassette drive, etc. My sister and I used to co-type programs from "Compute!". The times were so much simpler then..
The TI99/4A was my first computer when I was 7 or 8. Unfortunately, no cassette drive. As soon as I shut it off, my basic program was gone!
Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
While the CPU is a better fit than the 8 bit contemporaries, the 16kb of working memory is going to be a struggle.
It's cool because the registers are all in RAM, with a "workspace pointer" on the CPU pointing at where they are. This is slow, but a context switch is just changing that pointer.
Yep, but it lacks a MMU so memory protection and paging are going to require a lot of work. I think the only reason this is feasible at all is they're running the OS out of a ROM cartridge.