![]() Design of the hand-held transmitter/receiver was reported to be "essentially complete" but the peripheral was never offered. At the end of the day, our poor 99/4 was released with very few peripherals.ġ977 – It was thought by TI that wireless joysticks were critical and that a modem was essential. The TI Home Computer concept promised a great deal indeed – it was at this time considered essential that the computer initially have a range of peripherals, and it was designed to be easy to use with peripherals not yet imagined. When designing a new product, you start with the initial concept – with concept artwork. They were also one of the manufacturers of the widely used 8080 chip (developed by Intel in 1974). Hundreds of millions sold.ġ976 – TI made a single chip 16 bit CPU- the 9900. The rom included in the chip was programmed for each use and could not be repurposed for a different use. Cochran of TI.ġ974 – TMS1000 microcontroller, 4 bit cpu- very widely used in "Speak and Spell"– and microwave ovens, juke boxes, model train controllers. The US Patent for a "microcomputer" was granted to Gary Boone and Michael J. ġ971 – The first "computer on a chip"- today it would be called a microcontroller– the TMS1802 with a 4 bit cpu and offered a four function calculator. A popular 1969 film featured a HAL 9000 computer where HAL stood for "Heuristically Programmed ALgorithmic Computer". It was fairly simple but still used 16 bit words- it was called a HAL-9. NASA used "a software architecture, much of which was designed by engineer Hal Laning."Īlso in 1969, a "stored program" computer was designed by TI for machine control. The name of Hal Laning was later associated with the computer used in the first manned moon landing – in 1969. In prehistoric times, Texas Instruments had made their name with transistors, logic chips, digital watches, calculators, business computers, toys with synthesised speech.ġ960: engineers Ramon Alonso and Hal Laning employed at Texas Instruments, designed transistor "computers". Sources are listed at the end and include original documentation, and interviews carried out by others with former TI employees. This encouraged me to research more on the history of the TI99/4A online. Shortly afterwards it went on sale on eBay and the numerous bids quickly drove it to over $500. In January 2020 at a Retro Computing meeting held in Dallas, Texas, a "Dimension 4" computer was offered for sale. | Emulator Programs contact - please use subject="pc99 page" to avoid spam trap! ![]() [ TI Book front page | TI99/4a Articles to read | ![]()
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