====== Texas Instruments TI-99/2 BASIC Computer (1983) ======
===== Features =====
* CPU: Texas Instruments TMS 9995 10.7 MHz
* Co-Processor: Unknown
* RAM: 4 up (up to 36 kb)
* ROM: 32 KB
* Text Modes: 32 x 24
* Graphic Modes: Unknown
* Colors: Monochrome
* Sound: No!
* I/O Ports: Expansion port, Hex-Bus port, NTSC video out, tape-recorder
* Keyboard: QWERTY calculator type, 48 keys
* Built In Language: Lighted TI Basic
===== Known Issues =====
This TI99/2 driver is preliminary and could not be tested. (It may work, it may not work)
Notice that this system is a TESTDRIVER, i.e. it's not included in the pre-compiled MESS you find at mess.org -- http://www.mess.org/.
===== History and Trivia =====
The TI99/2 BASIC Computer was an attempt at producing a cheap ($100) computer. TI started designing it in the summer of 1982, it was first introduced in January 1983, and it was abandoned, before entering production, by April 1983.
It featured a TMS9995 microprocessor (with on-line timer and 256-byte RAM), 4kb of RAM, 24kb (or 32kb) of ROM, a B&W character-based display. There was no sound generator. It was mostly incompatible with TI99/4(a), but it used the same Basic syntax and file format.
The computer was obviously unattractive. On the other hand, it would have been cheap, fairly fast for its time, and easy to program in both BASIC and assembly.
Moreover, the expansion port of TI99/2 carried every bus signal, and even allowed to disable the system ROMs and use one's own ROMs instead, so this computer could have been a hobbyist's dream.
Wanted (dead or alive): If you have an actual TI99/2 or TI99/2 ROM image at hand, please mail me at pytheas@club-internet.fr
===== Links =====
* Sometimes -- http://sometimes.99er.net/
* 99ers -- http://www.99er.net/
* TI-99 Forever -- http://www.ti99.com/
* TI 99/2 at old-computers.com -- http://old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=267
===== Other Emulators =====
* PC99 -- http://pw2.netcom.com/~mjmw/index.html
* Classic99 -- http://www.harmlesslion.com/software/Classic99
* Win994A -- http://www.99er.net/win994a.shtml
Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009