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UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)

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Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)

#71

Post by lproven »

FarmerPotato wrote: post #65
lproven wrote: post #59

I wish there were some cheap FPGA version of the 3rd party implementation of the planned successor, the TI-99/8. It was called the Geneve 9640 from Myarc: https://dressupgeekout.com/geneve/ http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/geneve/geneve.html Wikipedia has a decent article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneve_9640 12 MHz un-crippled 16-bit CPU, 80 column text, 256 colour graphics, up to 2 MB of RAM. That would be much mo…

That's not accurate. The 99/8 was its own distinct upgrade path. Geneve 9640 was totally different. Both are available in MESS.

> was its own distinct upgrade path

"Would have been", surely? It never existed, did it? The Geneve shipped.

MESS is one thing. I am interested in something the size of a RasPi I can connect to a screen.

Think of something like this:

https://github.com/DonSuperfo/Xberry-Pi

Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)

#72

Post by FarmerPotato »

lproven wrote: post #71
FarmerPotato wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not accurate. The 99/8 was its own distinct upgrade path. Geneve 9640 was totally different. Both are available in MESS.

> was its own distinct upgrade path "Would have been", surely? It never existed, did it? The Geneve shipped. MESS is one thing. I am interested in something the size of a RasPi I can connect to a screen. Think of something like this: https://github.com/DonSuperfo/Xberry-Pi

Oh, 350 prototypes were built. Many were incomplete. The finished ones tended to go home with engineers--TI didn't exactly watch what went out the door.

I owned a 99/8 (without Pascal GROMs), so for me it was definitely real! Extended BASIC II was onboard, and showed this:

> SIZE 62235 BYTES FREE

The manuals and most schematics are long known and archived at ftp.whtech.com. I have/had paper copies of many of them. Sadly, TI never archived any Home Computer work from Lubbock, TX. Those employees had been laid off or transferred just as TI got interested in preserving archives (starting in 1983. Described in Ed Millis book: TI, the Transistor and Me.

The TI Records are at DeGolyer Library, SMU but contain very few Home Computer folders. Conspicuously missing are the papers of CB Wilson, which turned up at an estate sale and were fortunately scanned.

Wilson's office in Dallas seems to have contributed a few things to the archives. That is typical: mostly executives and Fellows were canvassed for documents. Ed Millis revived obsolete floppy formats for the cause in 1983!

Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)

#73

Post by FarmerPotato »

lproven wrote: post #71
FarmerPotato wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not accurate. The 99/8 was its own distinct upgrade path. Geneve 9640 was totally different. Both are available in MESS.

> was its own distinct upgrade path "Would have been", surely? It never existed, did it? The Geneve shipped. MESS is one thing. I am interested in something the size of a RasPi I can connect to a screen. Think of something like this: https://github.com/DonSuperfo/Xberry-Pi

@Shift838 made a ready configurator for the 99/4A MESS. He calls it OoeyGooey.

You might also try running Classic 99 under WINE. That works on my x86 MacBook. Classic99 has the legal license to ship with ROMs. (Well PC99 as well but it's hard to get.)

I'm not sure if JS99er runs standalone --that's a very good emulation in the browser, which you can load up anytime.

Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)

#74

Post by rasz »

FarmerPotato wrote: post #70
einr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for this, this is very interesting detailed context. Do you think there is a possible world where TI would have swallowed their pride and considered not-invented-here options like a regular 8080/Z80/6502 as the CPU?

I have a few ideas but I think they were set on using their own chip. There was a memo asking if TI should support those other CPUs in their AMPL prototyping system (990 based tools and in-circuit emulator). That investment was rejected. Anecdotally, Don Bynum was unhappy with slow progress on defining the Home Computer, and hacked together a Z80 based machine. The engineers redoubled their efforts... supposedly... T…

> TI had a TMS8080 (and later their own 486)

Well, technically correct :) It was Cyrix made in TI fab to skirt Intel patents. Same deal with ones made in IBM foundry

Cyrix Corp. v. Intel Corp., 879 F. Supp. 672 (E.D. Tex. 1995) https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/8...

"Section 1.23 of the IBM Agreement states that IBM Licensed Products "shall mean IHS Products ..." The only logical conclusion is that the parties meant those IHS Products specifically identified in Section 1.2 of the Agreement. Section 1.2 does not limit the products to IBM designed products."

"Therefore, IBM has the right to act as a foundry and to make, use, lease, sell and otherwise transfer the microprocessors in question to Cyrix free of any claims of patent infringement."

Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)

#75

Post by FarmerPotato »

rasz wrote: post #74
FarmerPotato wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few ideas but I think they were set on using their own chip. There was a memo asking if TI should support those other CPUs in their AMPL prototyping system (990 based tools and in-circuit emulator). That investment was rejected. Anecdotally, Don Bynum was unhappy with slow progress on defining the Home Computer, and hacked together a Z80 based machine. The engineers redoubled their efforts... supposedly... T…

> TI had a TMS8080 (and later their own 486) Well, technically correct :) It was Cyrix made in TI fab to skirt Intel patents. Same deal with ones made in IBM foundry Cyrix Corp. v. Intel Corp., 879 F. Supp. 672 (E.D. Tex. 1995) https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/8... "Section 1.23 of the IBM Agreement states that IBM Licensed Products "shall mean IHS Products ..." The only logical conclusion i…

Aha! I didn't know the Cyrix story. Just seeing TMS8080 in many places.

Re: UNIX99, a UNIX-like OS for the TI-99/4A (2025)

#76

Post by lproven »

FarmerPotato wrote: post #72
lproven wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was its own distinct upgrade path "Would have been", surely? It never existed, did it? The Geneve shipped. MESS is one thing. I am interested in something the size of a RasPi I can connect to a screen. Think of something like this: https://github.com/DonSuperfo/Xberry-Pi

Oh, 350 prototypes were built. Many were incomplete. The finished ones tended to go home with engineers--TI didn't exactly watch what went out the door. I owned a 99/8 (without Pascal GROMs), so for me it was definitely real! Extended BASIC II was onboard, and showed this: > SIZE 62235 BYTES FREE The manuals and most schematics are long known and archived at ftp.whtech.com. I have/had paper copies of many of them. Sa…

Thanks for this. It's been most educational.

> Oh, 350 prototypes were built.

OK -- so I was correct when I said it didn't ship, then? Unfinished prototypes leaked, like the Commodore C65, but no final complete product?

I found this page:

https://www.99er.net/998.html

But it's so riddled with typos it's extremely irritating.

«

There were aproxximately 100 etched PC boards. Only 250 of these were actually assembled into working units. Out these 250, only about 150 were the final preproduction versions.

»

Really. 100 boards but 250 of them were assembled?

At a guess: 1000 boards?

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