TI professional computer (not ti-99) for now

[GDMike]

9 hours ago, TheBF said:

Might need that manual.  

 

I saw a little snippet in that manual that they posted on eBay, circle is also defined. 

When I tried circle it didn't work. 

 

[GDMike]

Some commands...

[+TheBF]

1 hour ago, GDMike said:

I saw a little snippet in that manual that they posted on eBay, circle is also defined. 

When I tried circle it didn't work. 

 

You might have the wrong number of args or in the wrong units?

[GDMike]

I can get a little glimpse of the arguments it needs from this manual.. too bad the seller didn't take copies of each page and post them lol

 

I wish I could find a version of forth 

That was functional, meaning, had some of these basic commands already built and were usable. 

Like pset, color, line, locate(gotoxy), etc..

But, I don't know nearly enough about the hardware and the machine.

Edited August 26 by GDMike

[+TheBF]

Do you have any DOC on the system ROMs?

If it uses the same  or similar BIOS as an IBM PC, that is full documented and we could make some functions to call all that stuff.

[GDMike]

On 8/10/2024 at 9:11 PM, TheBF said:

Do you have any DOC on the system ROMs?

If it uses the same  or similar BIOS as an IBM PC, that is full documented and we could make some functions to call all that stuff.

Yes, roms here

 

 

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_tiprofessiomputerSystemRomListingv1.23_15910660/page/n2/mode/1up

 

Edited August 26 by GDMike

[GDMike]

Well this is what I thought you were looking for but not sure. 

 

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_tiprofessiomputerSystemRomListingv1.23_15910660/page/n2/mode/1up

[+TheBF]

Ok so this manual 

2223216-001_TIPC_Technical_Reference_Manual_Preliminary_012183.pdf (bitsavers.org)

 

Has a listing of the BIOS calls. I read they are different (but better) than the IBM PC verions.

I see immediately a difference.  IBM BIOS is called with INT 10.   TI uses INT 49. 

 

Section 3.9 has the details. I should be able to give you a Forth word (?) that calls the BIOS with parameters on the stack so you could play around.

 

[GDMike]

I tried downloading that manual but it wouldn't download for me I'll try again later

 

Got it.. thx

Edited August 11 by GDMike

[GDMike]

On 8/10/2024 at 10:50 PM, TheBF said:

Ok so this manual 

2223216-001_TIPC_Technical_Reference_Manual_Preliminary_012183.pdf (bitsavers.org)

 

Has a listing of the BIOS calls. I read they are different (but better) than the IBM PC verions.

I see immediately a difference.  IBM BIOS is called with INT 10.   TI uses INT 49. 

 

Section 3.9 has the details. I should be able to give you a Forth word (?) that calls the BIOS with parameters on the stack so you could play around.

 

There's more ..

Here

2241092-0001_Business-Pro_Professional_Computer_Hardware_Technical_Reference_Apr86.pdf

[GDMike]

TI PI needed for the Texas instruments professional computer. 

This would fix my hard drive problem 

And put me on the network. 

 

[+TheBF]

7 hours ago, GDMike said:

TI PI needed for the Texas instruments professional computer. 

This would fix my hard drive problem 

And put me on the network. 

 

That might be a big project. Is there an RS232 port on that thing?

[GDMike]

There's a printer port on the motherboard,

And there's a com 1 port on a hh card.

Which I've been playing with today because I have a modem.. actually two different modems..

And I found a program called term for the professional computer and it works wonderfully. 

But my serial  cable must be a straight through or it must be something else because it's not working with the modem right. 

And I recall as I pulled this out of a new plastic bag this morning that I think it was a null modem cable...

 

Greg was helping me diagnose it and we believe it's just got the wrong cable

Edited August 13 by GDMike

[GDMike]

It's been a little while since I've said what's been going on with my TI pro. 

 

I sent my clock multifunction card out for repair and it's still not registering the second on board RAM card and The clock is still not working. 

Still looking for a schematic for that multifunction card.

 

I ordered a new clock chip since it's socketed and we'll try it when it gets here next week..

In the meantime I ordered a DREM for it. that's going to be exciting. I got to see how that functions. I've never owned one before.

 

That is supposed to remedy the hard drive issue of not having a hard drive but use an SD card instead. 

 

And I went ahead and picked up the lotus 123 and the MS basic packages off of eBay. 

Basic is really performing well and I believe I can write just about anything I need, except for the ability of not having sprites of course. 

I'm not sure if a better video card was ever made for the computer..

was Hercules an option and did it give Sprites?

When I get the DREM will try the version of forth again.

 

I also experimented with a raspberry Pico / video input (CGA), to HDMI.

I did get it to work after a couple of failures and SD card rebuilds after talking to the manufacturer. 

So now the issue have not having a monitor with these is kind of solved with this converter box. 

Because I have one good monitor and I have one bad monitor just split between two computers. So having the CGA converter helps a lot was getting the second machine running.

I also played with a program I found called TERM. 

It keeps a list of BBS's and allows many settings and configurations of how you want your modem to act. 

I really like the program.

Now if I could just get the right serial cable I'll be in business with dial up.

 

Edited August 26 by GDMike

[GDMike]

Found a TI professional monitor on eBay today. 

Says "untested",  I'm taking a chance I know it. maybe between the one that's not working and this one I can get a good monitor out of the deal

 

 

[+TheBF]

On 8/13/2024 at 3:54 PM, GDMike said:

There's a printer port on the motherboard,

And there's a com 1 port on a hh card.

Which I've been playing with today because I have a modem.. actually two different modems..

And I found a program called term for the professional computer and it works wonderfully. 

But my serial  cable must be a straight through or it must be something else because it's not working with the modem right. 

And I recall as I pulled this out of a new plastic bag this morning that I think it was a null modem cable...

 

Greg was helping me diagnose it and we believe it's just got the wrong cable

OMG what a time warp with that US Robotics modem. 

Damn good thing I didn't get any older.

 

[GDMike]

8087

RTC for the multifunction card...(Last resort to fix it)

And some software, just because 

Edited August 29 by GDMike

[+FarmerPotato]

I've never seen an 8087. Is that a 48-pin package?

 

Hooray for TIPC. 

[+FarmerPotato]

2 hours ago, GDMike said:

And some software,

If you find any PeachTree software... I'd love to see again what features PeachText has. 
 

There's a near-zero chance that I didn't reformat my TIPC floppies.  

[GDMike]

I believe they're 40, but I haven't counted them

My kitchen painters are here finishing my kitchen and so I can't get to the computer stuff right now. 

 

Looky

eBay has 9995 CPU in bundles of 2 each for $25

Edited August 29 by GDMike

[+FarmerPotato]

On 8/25/2024 at 8:20 PM, GDMike said:

I'm not sure if a better video card was ever made for the computer..

Remind me again what the usual resolution/colors was? I thought it was unique to TIPC, like 720x350, four?  eight colors? I think I saw an option with Hercules resolution (MGA?)

 

I've been watching for the Color Graphics Card. This was more of an evaluation kit  for the TMS34061 chip. I see one at $600, bleah. 

 

There are two revisions, the second I think has TI's 34076 palette chip.
 

This card demonstrates workstation-class resolution, I imagine for users of TI VRAM  like Tektronix .

 

It was limited by the amount of VRAM supplied onboard (4161s I think) but you could configure resolution like 640x480, up to a (strange) maximum of 1024 by too few rows (512?) in 16 colors.  The users guide has C code examples. 
 

Some cool features on this card, using the 34061 and VRAM:

 

1. Loading 16 new colors from the VRAM at the start of every pixel row. 

2.  X-Y addressing. Different write ports that incremented/decremented X,Y, or both. 

3. Very wasteful of the PC address space, but direct access to all of the VRAM. 

 

4. VRAM shift register can copy any row to another row in two operations. (during vertical blank.) 

5. 34061 is a memory controller, offering a host 18-bit address and 8-bit data port.  96% of cycles are available to the host to read/write memory.   4% is refresh and active display. 
 

Dual Port VRAM -TMS4161

 

The 4161 takes just one access to transfer a whole row to the serial output buffer, which is on separate pins. Output pin and pixel clock, feed the palette pipeline, freeing up the address/data pins. So the host has full memory bandwidth until the next horizontal sync. 
 

That enabled extremely fast screen fill and line drawing. And 16 colors per line! And fast direct memory access. 

 

I've got the users guide now, and several related data books, even schematics. 

 

 

 

[+FarmerPotato]

28 minutes ago, GDMike said:

eBay has 9995 CPU in bundles of 2 each for $25

Other sellers have 9995 at $10 each,  less if you deal direct (start with alibaba.com).  I don't get why so many Shenzhen dealers do lots of 2... 

[+FarmerPotato]

On 8/25/2024 at 8:20 PM, GDMike said:

and did it give Sprites?

No. You'd have to do it custom, with double-buffering, BITBLT, or some such. On the other hand, you get to choose the rectangle size of a "sprite". 
 

 

Not even the later TIGA cards offered such a toolkit. Programmers rolled their own. 
 

I once did experiments of  bitmap "sprites" on the Geneve. Four different techniques. One bouncing 64x64 32x32 sprite  took up all the 9938 bandwidth.  9938 has poor memory bandwidth and slow block-move commands. 

Edited August 29 by FarmerPotato

[+mizapf]

2 hours ago, FarmerPotato said:

9938 has poor memory bandwidth and slow block-move commands. 

Indeed. My own measurements: https://www.ninerpedia.org/wiki/V9938_Video_Data_Processor#Benchmarks

 

[GDMike]

3 hours ago, FarmerPotato said:

Remind me again what the usual resolution/colors was? I thought it was unique to TIPC, like 720x350, four?  eight colors? I think I saw an option with Hercules resolution (MGA?)

 

I've been watching for the Color Graphics Card. This was more of an evaluation kit  for the TMS34061 chip. I see one at $600, bleah. 

 

There are two revisions, the second I think has TI's 34076 palette chip.
 

This card demonstrates workstation-class resolution, I imagine for users of TI VRAM  like Tektronix .

 

It was limited by the amount of VRAM supplied onboard (4161s I think) but you could configure resolution like 640x480, up to a (strange) maximum of 1024 by too few rows (512?) in 16 colors.  The users guide has C code examples. 
 

Some cool features on this card, using the 34061 and VRAM:

 

1. Loading 16 new colors from the VRAM at the start of every pixel row. 

2.  X-Y addressing. Different write ports that incremented/decremented X,Y, or both. 

3. Very wasteful of the PC address space, but direct access to all of the VRAM. 

 

4. VRAM shift register can copy any row to another row in two operations. (during vertical blank.) 

5. 34061 is a memory controller, offering a host 18-bit address and 8-bit data port.  96% of cycles are available to the host to read/write memory.   4% is refresh and active display. 
 

Dual Port VRAM -TMS4161

 

The 4161 takes just one access to transfer a whole row to the serial output buffer, which is on separate pins. Output pin and pixel clock, feed the palette pipeline, freeing up the address/data pins. So the host has full memory bandwidth until the next horizontal sync. 
 

That enabled extremely fast screen fill and line drawing. And 16 colors per line! And fast direct memory access. 

 

I've got the users guide now, and several related data books, even schematics. 

 

 

 

I'm trying to find out if this computer has a serial port because I see 25 pin and I see nine pin but they're all females