slinkeey Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 The TI-99/4A Appear to be budget for it's time compared to an XT PC. IT looks great, but it has a ton of plastic.... Well the TI-99/4A does have nice mechanical keyboard better thn today's keyboard.. The layout sucks, but the feel is nice.. Here is the big question. Was the PEB designed by a different team? That thing appears to be built more like an IBM Midrange (System 36, 38, AS400) in how the cards go in.. It is not like a personal PC like an XT.. The cards have enclosures and there are clasps for them and etc. The quality between the console and the PEB are day and night. Yes i realize that back then the metal cases actually had some substance in the metal, but the whole design seams to midrange like. It reminds me a little of hwhen you see inside an IBM system I or something along those lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 I heard rumours that when the design shifted from side-cars to an expansion box, that the order went out to design it like a tank, something like "we want zero returns for shipping damage". I don't know how true that rumour is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted May 23, 2013 Author Share Posted May 23, 2013 (edited) Next thing.. Kind of not realted, but I figured it would fit right in here considering it is PEB related. The Board in the PEB appears to just be a BUS. Anyways it is like hardware design is going full circle. Geneve used that BUS and built a CPU card that plugged into it. (Sure they are not the first) Now Facebook and etc are touting this *new* idea of having a bus board that you could plug any brand CPU into. I am not saying that anything is wrong with this... I just think it is silly how these clowns at Facebook and etc. get all excited thinking that they entering some new frontier or something. Inside of Tursi's PEB: The Group Hug microserver backplane: Edited May 24, 2013 by slinkeey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted May 23, 2013 Share Posted May 23, 2013 Yep.. a number of early hobby computers were designed this way - just a bus that you plugged boards into. I remember even having a book on making your own computer that touted this approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Tursi, Did you block your image from being pulled off an external site? No big deal, and sorry if I should not have done that.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 My site has general rules that block most external links, yeah. It's not a big deal these days, but once upon a time it was costing a lot of bandwidth. Just download the image and repost it in the post, if you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Yeah.... I know bandwidth was a problem and many people used to block linking. I basically wanted to make sure you are OK with me downloading and re-posting the image. FYI -- Google Chrome loads the image even though it is a link back.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 No worries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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