Any TI 990 people out there?

[Chuck(G)]

On my bookshelf I found a box of 8" floppies for the TI 990 mini. They look to be about 1977. The labels run like this:

937803-001
TX990/TXDS RELEASE 2.0
DISKETTE 1
CONTENTS=TX990 PARTS
REF MANUAL 946259-9701
SECT VII, FOR SYSGEN
INFORMATION (GENTX)

and 4 more diskettes with various subsystems: (913 VDT, 733 ASR, 743 KSR, UTILITIES)

All bear real TI labels with "PROPERTY OF TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED" on them.

I can image these for anyone who might have an old TI990 lurking in a corner waiting for an OS. All are IBM 3740 format (128x26x77).

 

[XXDP]

I saw a 990 at a public school in the mid 1990s, but that was the only time I've ever seen one. I called that school a few years ago to see if the machine was still around. Sadly, by that time it had been scrapped and almost forgotten.

 

[Ksarul]

I have a friend who has a 990 and who might be interested in these. . .

 

[MikeS]

Why not ask on CCtalk? I seem to recall several people are interested there; in fact I still have some 990 manuals that I was supposed to send to someone - thanks for reminding me.

 

[dambuster]

Worked on 990/10 - 990/12 for about 6 years - 1978 to 1984. As a systems and application programmer. Have many happy memories of this machine despite its peculiarities ie registers in memory. I well remember the day we created the tower of power with 1GB of on-line storage, caused a storm of excitement amongst our customers. 1GB this was mamouth for 1982/3. We had one programmer who wrote space invaders in COBOL. Very slow on a 990/10 but worked ok on a 990/12 and was blistering on a 990/12 with a TEN-X card in the chassis. Anyone remember R-Word word processing I'd love to know how the dongle worked.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I have a friend who has a 990 and who might be interested in these. . .

Have him drop me a line...

Most people don't know that the TMS9900 is pretty much a literal implementation of the 990 mini--and that the MSP430 microcontroller is based on it also--but without the workspace pointer business--but the instructions would definitely seem like old home week.

 

[Ksarul]

Will do!