jdgabbard Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 So I was watching the blood moon with a neighbor last night who worked for TI back in the 80s. And I posed a question to him that he couldn't answer. "Why did TI use the Z80 instead of the TMS9900 for their TI-83 calculator?" It seems as though they would have kept the cost down and given themselves the business, instead of someone else. Not to mention that the 9900 is appears to be a much more powerful processor than the z80. The only thing I can come up with is that they didn't want to have to write the necessary changes in code to make the TI-99's basic work on their calculator. And instead, used something that was much more popular on the market. Does anyone have any insight to this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 It's cheaper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Was TI still making the TMS9900 at that time? The first TI-83 came out in 1996 (at least according to Wikipedia). I'm sure the main reason is that the Z80 was cheaper, since it could be acquired from several sources. I'm somewhat surprised that TI doesn't seem to have made their own Z80 clone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Sure, why not use the TMS70C46 used in the TI-74 and TI-95? Note, too, that the TI-89 used a 68000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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