The Geneve 9640 is an enhanced TI-99/4A clone. It was sold by the company Myarc as a card to fit into the Texas Instruments TI Peripheral Expansion System. Released in 1987, it is in many ways similar to the earlier TI-99/8, which was in prototype form in early 1983. The Geneve 9640 was designed by Paul Charlton, and the graphical swan on the boot up screen was designed by Mi-Kyung Kim.

Hardware

The Geneve 9640 features a 16-bit TMS9995 processor clocked at 12 MHz. A Yamaha V9938

video display processor A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mob ...

(the same one used in the MSX2 family of home computers) provides 256 color graphics at a 256 x 424 resolution, 16 color graphics at a 512 x 424 resolution, and an 80 column text mode. Audio is produced via an

SN76496 The SN76489 Digital Complex Sound Generator (DCSG) is a TTL-compatible programmable sound generator chip from Texas Instruments. Its main application was the generation of music and sound effects in game consoles, arcade games and home computer ...

programmable sound generator, capable of producing three simultaneous

square waves A square wave is a non-sinusoidal periodic waveform in which the amplitude alternates at a steady frequency between fixed minimum and maximum values, with the same duration at minimum and maximum. In an ideal square wave, the transitions ...

at sixteen different volume levels, as well as an additional noise channel that could produce either periodic or white noise in three different frequencies and at sixteen different volumes. Onboard memory consists of 512 KB CPU RAM, which can be upgraded to at least 2 MB through the use of the Myarc Memex Expansion Card or similar, as well as 128 KB video RAM. The board also includes a battery backed

real time clock A real-time clock (RTC) is an electronic device (most often in the form of an integrated circuit) that measures the passage of time. Although the term often refers to the devices in personal computers, servers and embedded systems, RTCs are p ...

(RTC). An

IBM PC XT The IBM Personal Computer XT (model 5160, often shortened to PC/XT) is the second computer in the IBM Personal Computer line, released on March 8, 1983. Except for the addition of a built-in hard drive and extra expansion slots, it is very simila ...

compatible detached keyboard and a mouse are used for input. The Geneve 9640 is compatible with nearly all software written for the TI-99/4A. An adapter was made by a company named Rave to allow the sidecar-only Speech Synthesizer to be installed inside the Peripheral Expansion System.

Software

The following software is bundled with the Geneve. *Cartridge Saver, allowing most cartridges to be saved to and run from disk *GPL, a program used to set up a 99/4a environment to run software saved by Cartridge Saver or most other 99/4a-specific software *Advanced BASIC, supporting 80 columns and compatible with TI BASIC and TI Extended BASIC *

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

Runtime (not officially released by Myarc) *TI-Writer Word Processor, upgraded to 80 columns and increased speed *

Microsoft Multiplan Multiplan is spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft and introduced in 1982 as a competitor to VisiCalc. Multiplan was released first for computers running CP/M; it was developed using a Microsoft proprietary p-code C compiler as part of ...

, upgrade to 80 columns, increased memory, and increased speed * MDOS, the Myarc Disk Operating System In 1993, Beery Miller, the publisher of 9640 News, organized a group of Geneve 9640 owners and was able to purchase all rights to the source code for MDOS, Advanced Basic, the PSYSTEM runtime module, and the GPL Interpreter from Myarc and Paul Charlton. Over the years, MDOS has been updated by individuals including Tim Tesch, Clint Pulley, Alan Beard, John Johnson, James Schroeder, Mike Maksimik, James Uzzell, Tony Knerr, Beery Miller, and others. Support adding

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

, IDE, and larger ramdisks were added in the earlier years from the buyout. In late 2020 and early 2021 with the release of the TIPI for the TI-99/4A, the Geneve was interfaced with the TIPI and a Raspberry PI providing

TCP socket A network socket is a software structure within a network node of a computer network that serves as an endpoint for sending and receiving data across the network. The structure and properties of a socket are defined by an application programming ...

access and nearly unlimited high speed hard-drive like file access. A small but active base of users still exist on www.Atariage.com as of 2021 where Tim Tesch, Beery Miller, and others provide support.

References

External links

Myarc Geneve 9640 Family Computer
* tp://ftp.whtech.com/9640news Myarc Geneve 9640 Software{Dead link, date=December 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Geneve 9640
- a close look at the system board and sales flyer

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160117050625/http://www.thekeep.net/mcgill/images/101_0124.jpg Photo of Geneve 9640 booting- HD-based vertical PEB system belonging t
Gregory McGillPhoto of Geneve showing swan image
- fro

- mixed Geneve 9640 and TI-99/4A photos
OLD-COMPUTERS.COM
- Geneve 9640 page at old-computers.com TI-99/4A Home computers