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Info for to9


====== Thomson TO9 (French, Sep 1985) ======




===== Features =====

* CPU: 1 MHz Motorola 6809E
* RAM: 112 KB base + 64 KB virtual disk extension
* ROM: 136 KB BIOS, BASIC 1.0, BASIC 128, graphical DOS, text processor & database software
* Video: 8 video modes
* legacy 320x200, 16 colors with proximity constraints
* 320x200, 4 colors, unconstrained
* 160x200, 16 colors
* 640x200, 2 colors
* 320x200, two 2-color pages
* 320x200, two overlaid pages, 3 colors
* 160x200, four 2-color pages
* 160x200, four overlaid pages, 5 colors
* Palette: 16 colors to be chosen among 4096.
* Sound: 1-bit buzzer + 6-bit DAC extension + speech synthesis extension
* Keyboard: AZERTY 81-keys, French with accents, keypad & function keys
* Game-pad: two 8-way 1-button paddles
* Mouse (not emulated)
* Lightpen
* Cartridge: optional, TO7 compatible
* Cassette: 900 bauds, TO7 compatible
* Floppy: integrated controller and 3"1/2 drive + 2 external 3"1/2 drives, TO7-compatible 320 KB floppies
* Printer port (CENTRONICS)



===== Usage =====

== Menu ==

From the startup menu, press SHIFT+1 and SHIFT+2 to access the internal software (text-processor and database), SHIFT+3 to get the BASIC 128, SHIFT+4 for the old BASIC 1.0, SHIFT+5 to change the color palette, and SHIFT+6 to access the graphical DOS.

== Cartridges ==

An optional cartridge can be inserted with the -cart option. It can be started from the startup menu by pressing SHIFT+0.

The TO9 can run TO7 and TO7/70 cartridges, but not MO5 ones.

== Cassettes ==

They have the same format as the TO7 and TO7/70 ones, and MESS recognizes the same image types (.wav and .k7).

We recall that cassettes are loaded with one of the two following BASIC commands:
RUN"" (for BASIC files)
LOADM"",,R (for binary files)

Please see the to7 driver for more informations.

Thanks to the backward compatibility, you should be able to run most TO7 and TO7/70 software, provided that you load them from the old BASIC 1.0 and not the BASIC 128.

Note that to use cassettes with the BASIC 128, you must use the commands
RUN"CASS:"
and
LOADM"CASS:",,R
respectively because the cassette device is no longer the default one.

== Floppies ==

The TO9 has an internal 3"1/2 drive, and allows two more external 3"1/2 drives to be connected. They are named -flop0, -flop2, -flop3.

In theory, drive number 1 (-flop1) does not exist: it corresponds to the hypothetical second side of the one-sided internal drive.

But MESS emulates -flop1 anyway...

Due to the fixed internal controller, only 3"1/2 floppies can be used. 2"8 floppies will no work while 5"1/4 floppies might work partially.

Floppies are TO7, TO7/70 and MO5 compatible. The same .fd and .sap image formats are recognized.

Floppies can be used directly form the BASIC 128 (SHIFT+3).

Then use the commands DIR, LOAD, SAVE, RUN, DSKINI as usual (see the to7 driver).

Most games are bootable. Simply insert the floppy in drive 0 (-flop0) and press D in the startup menu.

Using floppies with the old BASIC 1.0 is also possible, but more complex. You must first insert a BASIC DOS boot disk in drive 0, and then start the BASIC (SHIFT+4) in the startup menu.

The graphical DOS (SHIFT+6, then select a drive number) allows formatting and copying floppies, but not running them.

Note that the 5-th drive, numbered 4, does not correspond to a real floppy, but to a 64 KB RAM disk.

== Keyboard ==

The keyboard is AZERTY, with a keypad, a CAPS-LOCK key and function keys.

F1/F6 F2/F7 F3/F8 F4/F9 F5/F10

#@ *1 e2 "3 '4 (5 _6 e7 !8 c9 a0 )° -\ =+ ACC UP 7 8 9

STOP A Z E R T Y U I O P ^" $& ENTER LEFT RIGHT 4 5 6

CTRL [{ Q S D F G H J K L M u% ]} DOWN 1 2 3

CAPS SHIFT W X C V B N ,? ;. :/ >< SHIFT HOME INS DEL 0 . ENT

SPACE

As for modern AZERTY keyboards, SHIFT must be hold to enter digits.

== Mouse ==

Currently not emulated.

== Video ==

MESS has two emulation modes: low-resolution and high-resolution.

The default is low-resolution, which is fast and sufficient to emulate most graphical modes (160x200 and 320x200 resolution). To represent faithfully the 640x200 TO9 mode, you should switch to the slower, high-resolution emulation mode in MESS's in-game menu.



===== Known Issues =====

* External controller (masking the internal one) not emulated, 5"1/4 and 2"8 floppies will not work

* Mouse not emulated

* MODEM and RS232 ports not emulated

* Speech synthesis sounds terrible



===== History and Trivia =====

Much improved successor of the TO7/70, destined for semi-professional usage. Note that it is older than the TO8.

The TO9 was a high-end product destined to a semi-professional usage.

It included lots of RAM, software in ROM, a 3"1/2 floppy drive. It had a desktop look with a separate keyboard and an optional mouse.

It was a TO family computer, backward compatible with the TO7 and TO7/70 (but not the MO5).

It was the first Thomson computer based on the new video gate-array that increased greatly the video capabilities.

Also, it was the first Thomson to have a dedicated keyboard chip (former ones relied on CPU pooling).

Alas it had many problems.

The text-processor and database management software included in ROM were quite buggy. Even the BASIC 128 was not able to access the full power of the TO9 (in particular, the 64 KB RAM extension could only be used as a virtual RAM disk, not as a main memory). The integrated floppy drive was one-sided.

It was considered somewhat immature and quickly replaced with the improved TO9+.



===== Links =====

* Thomson driver main page -- http://www.di.ens.fr/~mine/mess

See the information for the to7 system for generic Thomson links



===== Other Emulators =====

* DCMOTO: universal Thomson emulator, with many software and documentations -- http://dcmoto.free.fr




Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009