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TI-990
The TI-990 was a series of 16-bit minicomputers sold by Texas Instruments (TI) in the 1970s and 1980s. It served as a replacement for TI's earlier minicomputer systems, the TI-960 and the TI-980. The TI-990 featured several unique innovations and was designed to be easier to program than its predecessors. Among its core concepts was the ability to support multiprogramming using a software-switchable set of processor registers that allowed it to perform rapid context switches between programs. This was enabled through the use of register values stored in main memory that could be swapped by changing a single pointer. TI later implemented the TI-990 in a single chip, the TMS9900, one of the first 16-bit microprocessors. Intended for use in low-end models of the TI-990, it retained the 990's memory-to-memory architecture. This chip was widely used in the TI-99/4A home computer, where details of its minicomputer-style memory model presented significant disadvantages. Features Worksp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TMS9900
The TMS9900 was one of the first commercially available single-chip 16-bit microprocessors. Introduced in June 1976, it implemented Texas Instruments's TI-990 minicomputer architecture in a single-chip format, and was initially used for low-end models of that lineup. Its 64-pin DIP format made it more expensive to implement in smaller machines than the more common 40-pin format, and it saw relatively few design wins outside TI's own use. Among those uses was their TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A home computers, which ultimately sold about 2.8 million units. By the mid-1980s, the microcomputer field was moving to 16-bit systems such as the Intel 8086 and newer 16/32-bit designs such as the Motorola 68000. With no obvious future for the chip, TI's Semiconductor division turned its attention to special-purpose 32-bit processors: the Texas Instruments TMS320, introduced in 1983, and the Texas Instruments TMS340 graphics processor. The 9900 architecture lived on into the 1990s as the Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minicomputers
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is an exceptionally large machine. Minicomputers in the traditional technical sense covered here are only small relative to generally even earlier and much bigger machines. The class formed a distinct group with its own software architectures and operating systems. Minis were designed for control, instrumentation, human interaction, and communication switching, as distinct from calculation and record keeping. Many were sold indirectly to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for final end-use application. During the two-decade lifetime of the minicomputer class (1965–1985), almost 100 minicomputer vendor companies formed. Only a half-dozen remained by the mid-1980s. When single-chip CPU microprocessors appeared in the 1970s, the defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DX10 Operating System
DX10 was a general purpose international, multitasking operating system designed to operate with the Texas Instruments 990/10, 990/10A and 990/12 minicomputers using the memory mapping feature. The Disk Executive Operating System (DX10) DX10 was a versatile disk-based operating system capable of supporting a wide range of commercial and industrial applications. DX10 was also a multiterminal system capable of making each of several users appear to have exclusive control of the system. DX10 was an international operating system designed to meet the commercial requirements of the United States, most European countries, and Japan. DX10 supported several models of video display terminals (VDTs), most of which permit users to enter, view, and process data in their own language. DX10 Capabilities DX10 required a basic hardware configuration, but allows additional members of an extensive group of peripherals to be included in the configuration. During system generation, the user coul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TI-DNOS
Distributed Network Operating System (DNOS) The Distributed Network Operating System (DNOS) is a general purpose, multitasking operating system designed to operate with the Texas Instruments 990/10, 990/10A and 990/12 minicomputers. DNOS includes a sophisticated file management package which provides support for key indexed files, sequential files, and relative record files. DNOS is a multiterminal system that is capable of making each of several users appear to have exclusive control of the system. DNOS supports output spooling and program accessible accounting data. Job level and task level operations enable more efficient use of system resources. In addition to multiterminal applications, DNOS provides support for advanced program development. Users communicate with DNOS by entering commands at a terminal or by providing a file of commands. The System Command Interpreter (SCI) processes those commands and directs the operating system to initiate the action specified by a com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DX10
DX10 was a general purpose international, multitasking operating system designed to operate with the Texas Instruments 990/10, 990/10A and 990/12 minicomputers using the memory mapping feature. The Disk Executive Operating System (DX10) DX10 was a versatile disk-based operating system capable of supporting a wide range of commercial and industrial applications. DX10 was also a multiterminal system capable of making each of several users appear to have exclusive control of the system. DX10 was an international operating system designed to meet the commercial requirements of the United States, most European countries, and Japan. DX10 supported several models of video display terminals (VDTs), most of which permit users to enter, view, and process data in their own language. DX10 Capabilities DX10 required a basic hardware configuration, but allows additional members of an extensive group of peripherals to be included in the configuration. During system generation, the user coul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TI-99/4A
The TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A are home computers released by Texas Instruments (TI) in 1979 and 1981, respectively. Based on TI's own TMS9900 microprocessor originally used in minicomputers, the TI-99/4 was the first 16-bit home computer. The associated TMS9918 video display controller provides color graphics and Sprite (computer graphics), sprite support which were only comparable with those of the Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 400 and 800 released a month later. The TI-99 series also initially competed with the Apple II and TRS-80."Death of a Computer," April 1984, ''Texas Monthly,'' retrieved September 20, 2023 The calculator-style keyboard of the TI-99/4 and the high price were cited as weak points. TI's reliance on ROM cartridges and their practice of limiting develo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). The IC is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, Clock signal, clock-driven, Processor register, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary code, binary data as input, processes it according to instruction (computing), instructions stored in its computer memory, memory, and provides results (also in binary form) as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential logic, sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system. The integration of a whole CPU on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microcode
In processor design, microcode serves as an intermediary layer situated between the central processing unit (CPU) hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of a computer. It consists of a set of hardware-level instructions that implement the higher-level machine code instructions or control internal finite-state machine sequencing in many digital processing components. While microcode is utilized in Intel and AMD general-purpose CPUs in contemporary desktops and laptops, it functions only as a fallback path for scenarios that the faster hardwired control unit is unable to manage. Housed in special high-speed memory, microcode translates machine instructions, state machine data, or other input into sequences of detailed circuit-level operations. It separates the machine instructions from the underlying electronics, thereby enabling greater flexibility in designing and altering instructions. Moreover, it facilitates the construction of complex multi-step inst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Execute Instruction
In a computer instruction set architecture (ISA), an execute instruction is a machine language instruction which treats data as a machine instruction and executes it. It can be considered a fourth mode of instruction sequencing after ordinary sequential execution, branching, and interrupting. Since it is an instruction that operates on other instructions like the repeat instruction, it has also been classified as a meta-instruction. Computer models Many computer families introduced in the 1950s and 1960s include ''execute'' instructions: the IBM 709 and IBM 7090 ( op code mnemonic: ), the IBM 7030 Stretch (, ), the PDP-1/ -4/ -7/ -9/ -15 (), the UNIVAC 1100/2200 (), the CDC 924 (), the PDP-6/ -10 (), the IBM System/360 (), the GE-600/ Honeywell 6000 (, ), the SDS-9xx (), the SDS 92 (), and the SDS Sigma series (). Fewer 1970s designs include ''execute'' instructions: the Nuclear Data 812 minicomputer (1971) (), the HP 3000 (1972) (), and the Texas Instruments TI-990 (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Instruments Computers
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous state in the South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and has an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest. Texas has a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Covering and with over 31 million residents as of 2024, it is the second-largest state by area and population. Texas is nicknamed the ''Lone Star State'' for its former status as the independent Republic of Texas. Spain was the first European country to claim and control Texas. Following a short-lived colony controlled by France, Mexico controlled the land until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming the Republic of Texas. In 1845, Texas joined the United States of America as the 28th state. The state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UCSD Pascal
UCSD Pascal is a Pascal programming language system that runs on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1977. It was developed at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The p-System In 1977, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Institute for Information Systems developed UCSD Pascal to provide students with a common environment that could run on any of the then available microcomputers as well as campus DEC PDP-11 minicomputers. The operating system became known as UCSD p-System. There were three operating systems that IBM offered for its original IBM PC. The first was UCSD p-System, with IBM PC DOS and CP/M-86 as the other two. Vendor SofTech Microsystems emphasized p-System's application portability, with virtual machines for 20 CPUs as of the IBM PC's release. It predicted that users would be able to use applications they purchased on future computers running p-System; advertisem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
