TI Performance testing

Creative Computing wrote benchmark code. I converted the benchmark code:

My goal is to benchmark all the TI products

This is the code for performance testing rewritten for the TI-99/4A.  I will probably rework this for all programable devices and make a list.

New Dice roller code

Along side of the many platforms I have written my Dice Roller software for, I'm now adding the TI-92 series to the list. These very portable handheld devices make perfect sense to have this code to bring to a game. I should have code and screenshots soon.




I may make a few D&D tools for this device being that it is so powerful, yet compact.

TI Rounding Routine and snowflake

 

stuff....

Just rolled out a new point version of GLASS and the program continues to get better.

for 0.9.0 the following changes:

- bug fixes
- Column background color
- Formula background color blue added
- Added setup menu
--- change column header
--- change column width
- Auto refresh
- temp file cache/recovery.



I'm also updating other projects like Dragons, Druids, and Dice...

Dice pickups in Oct 12 at FlatCon 2025

I have not posted many dice pickups in recent months (years?). I'm now at four boxes of dice. These dice are unusual enough to post about though.

First are these two cursed and blessed 20 sided dice. Cursed has two 1s and no twenty. Blessed has two twenties and no one.



Next are these two twelve sided dice. One is character class, and the other monster.

These two are magic adjustment dice.

These two are the 2025 FlatCon 6 sided dice


I own dice like the last two, but these are different enough for me to purchase.

I probably need to start cataloging and categorize all of mine like I used to do.

My GLASS spreadsheet page

 Since I have been putting so much effort writing spreadsheet software, I have created a new launch page for it.   https://mrgibson.com/GOS/index.php

I'm going to be posting GLASS for Linux and MacOS next, then work on C64 version of GSS.

Bad Apple on 80 computers!!!!

Bad Apple!

Each of these videos of computer renders keeps getting better.  

Really surprised how bad the C64 version is.

Impressed with what could be done with the Atari 2600
Animation is smooth, although not surprising blocky.

Best of these old computers is the TI-99/4a

Atari 2600
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko9ZA50X71

C64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsDy-4L6-tQ

Atari 8-bit computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNm04oCdYc

zx spectrum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd5iEeIe7L0

TI-99/4A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx__aAdm4wQ

Original video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtutLA63Cp8

More on my new spread sheet software

As I continue to tweak the code, I'm realizing there will not be a 16K version. This will require 32K. Although it is possible to have 1M on the TI-99/4A, I don't think this is a reasonable requirement as this is much harder to aquire and not considered standard setup, where-as 32K is. I have sliced some code off, yet memory restaints in an issue.

Menus are done. Now I'm testing and tweaking the code to make it the best I can under the 32k scope.

I'll have more screenshot and code released soon.

99-sss 25.0 spread sheet software

I'm about to release my newest spread sheet software for the TI-99/4A. I'm pretty excited about this one.

99-sss 25.0
But this version is much different than my previous.

First of all, it has heavy requirements for the TI-99/4A :
- Extended BASIC
- 16k or 32K RAM - (16k = 10x10, 32k = 10x30)
- Floppy Disk drive (real or virtual) - data saving.
- Tape drive (real or virtual)

But the capabilities are better, most importantly : - exporting data to other spread sheets
- configuring the spreadsheet as you go
- save to cassette or disk
- printing and plotting

Some of the specs might change as I tweak this version. I'm going to release the application on tape format for maximum user distribution.
I will probably have two versions. One tweaked for 16K of RAM, one tweaked for 32k of RAM. Since it is programmed in Extended BASIC, yes it will be opensource. What Lic? Probably GPL 3. I'm testing this on Virtual and Real Hardware.
Will I release this software for Atari or C64? I don't know yet.

Unix99

It has been a minute since I posted.  A lot I have been wanting to post, but have not.  Been knee deep in coding and Greek studies.  But there is something that really caught my eye. A new Unix for the TI-99/4A called Unix99.

Prerequisites

The Unix99 runtime environment can be used in an emulation environment (Classic99 and MAME) and

on physical hardware.

Unix99 execution requires the following emulated or real hardware at a minimum:

• TI-99 console, providing CPU, graphics, VRAM and sound

• 32KB RAM

• At least one persistent storage device (TIPI, WDSx, IDEx, SCSx, DSK1/Classic99)

• Programmable GROM hardware, such as FinalGROM, that provides a host for the Unix99 ROM

Additional supported TI-99 hardware:

• Speech synthesizer

• PICO9918 and F18A

• SAMS memory card

• RS232 and Parallel I/O

• External USB mouse (TIPI required)

• External USB keyboard (TIPI required)

The development environment requires:

• Linux or MacOS

• Docker Desktop

5

Let's talk C64 Ultimate.

I'm excited about two new computers that are remakes of old.  First of the two is the C64 Ultimate.  If I buy one, it will only be one of them.  So first lets look at Commodore's offering. 

Yes, there is another new C64 on the market, and this time from Commodore themselves.  The Commodore C64 Ultimate.

From the photos, we see it comes with Ethernet, USB, and HDMI video output.  The keyboard looks pretty close to the original.

We also know the new C64 will have GEOS installed. That is awesome, but will the new Commodore C64 come with a web browser like "The Wave"?  From the Commodore website, show geoWrite running. But will the C64 Ultimate come packaged with a word processor like geoWrite?

From the Commodore website:

Play 10,000+ original games with more RAM & 48Mhz Turbo mode! (128MB DDR2 RAM, 16MB NOR flash)(Core: AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA)

Plug in dusty old cartridges, CRT TVs, datasettes, or disk drives - it all works.‡

No disk drive needed: Load games using the File Browser from the supplied cassette-style USB thumbdrive, packed with 50+ titles - full games, licensed classics, music, demos, and Commodore's exclusive new sequel to our first ever game - Jupiter Lander. Or add your own!

Not just reborn but upgraded: More memory & faster speed options, multiple SID sound chips (add 2 original ones or use 8 x virtual SIDs!), keyboard macros, even modern printer support!

Enjoy HDMI clarity, Wi-Fi game transfer, USB convenience.

Hidden inside: the autographs/names of Commodore 64 creators past and present - including Albert 'Father of the Commodore 64' Charpentier - etched forever in the motherboard copper.*

Cubs players in collection

Here is a list of Cubs players (Not a complete list) that I have at least 8 cards of:

Name             cards/items
Ryne Sandberg    =  119 
Andre Dawson     =   77
Sammy Sosa       =   55
Mark Grace       =   50
Greg Maddux      =   44
Lee Smith        =   43
Shawon Dunston   =   43
Paul Assenmacher =   36
Derrek Lee       =   33
Jeff Pico        =   33
Dennis Lamp      =   33
Joe Girardi      =   25
Ron Santo        =   23
Damon Berryhill  =   23
Aramis Ramirez   =   22
Kerry Wood       =   20
Keith Moreland   =   20
Billy Williams   =   19
Leon Durham      =   19
Greg Gross       =   18
Anthony Rizzo    =   17
Jerome Walton    =   17
Mike Krukow      =   17
Ernie Banks      =   16 
Bill Buckner     =   15
Steve Lake       =   15
Kris Bryant      =   14
Derrick May      =   14
Starlin Castro   =   12
Jake Arrieta     =   11
Bill Madlock     =   11
Alfonso Soriano  =   11
Larry Bowa       =   11
Kyle Schwarber   =    9
Willie Hernandez =    9
Carlos Zambrano  =    9
Fergie Jenkins   =    8 
Geovany Soto     =    8
Ron Cey          =    8

Mad Magazine code for the TI-99/4A

Here is a fun little program







100 REM MAD 2025 (TI-BASIC)


110 CALL CLEAR

120 CALL SCREEN(15)

130 FOR N=1 TO 16

140 CALL COLOR(N,5,1)

150 NEXT N

160 FOR N=1 TO 98

170 READ DEF$,GRAPHICS,ROW,COLUMN

180 CALL CHAR(GRAPHICS,DEF$)

190 CALL HCHAR(ROW,COLUMN,GRAPHICS,1)

200 NEXT N

210 M$="WHAT, ME WORRY?"

220 FOR I=1 TO LEN(M$)

230 ID=ASC(SEG$(M$,I,1))

240 CALL HCHAR(19,9+I,ID)

250 NEXT I

260 GOTO 260

270 DATA "00000000010F3FFC",33,5,15,"01030F7EFCE00000",34,5,16,"A8D870E0FE070000",35,5,17

280 DATA "0000000000073FF8",36,5,18,"000001070E180000",37,6,12,"01FCFFF16060C080",38,6,13

290 DATA "8FFED8C020000000",39,6,14,"E000000000000000",40,6,15,"1613010000000000",41,6,18

300 DATA "00E0301C0E070301",42,6,19,"000000000080C0E0",48,6,20,"01070E0E0E0E0C0D",43,7,12

310 DATA "C080000000000000",45,7,13,"E070381E0F070301",46,7,20,"000000000080C0E0",47,7,21

320 DATA "0F0D191913070E1C",49,8,12,"0000000101010101",50,8,13,"00131B9ADE7E6E6C",51,8,14

330 DATA "00C0F03E07000000",52,8,15,"00007F3FC3F03C0E",53,8,16,"003C8FCDFE1F0E00",54,8,17

340 DATA "0000FEFF31180C00",55,8,18,"0000000080E1713F",56,8,19,"0100000070D8D818",57,8,20

350 DATA "F8C04060703C3218",58,8,21,"1C3C78D898303038",59,9,12,"03020606061E1C18",60,9,13

360 DATA "6C6C400000000000",61,9,14,"311C0C0000000000",62,9,19,"30381C0C06070301",64,9,20

370 DATA "1C1C0C0C0E0E0F0D",66,9,21,"1818183870606060",67,10,12,"0C0C1C1838303060",68,10,13

380 DATA "0003070F1C383070",70,10,14,"FFFFFFFF0001010F",71,10,15,"008080800080C0E0",73,10,16

390 DATA "00000001030F0F0C",74,10,17,"00007FFFFFFFC000",75,10,18,"000080C0E0F03000",76,10,19

400 DATA "0103030607070301",78,10,20,"0606060606060403",80,10,21,"000000030F3C70C7",81,11,11

410 DATA "606060B0180C0603",83,11,12,"606040C08080C0E0",85,11,13,"31071E0F00010301",86,11,14

420 DATA "FF7D7D0000ECF9C3",88,11,15,"800080C000C0C080",90,11,16,"0001030703040101",91,11,17

430 DATA "00FF7F7D00013FFF",92,11,18,"0080C0E0E0808000",93,11,19,"0100000000010103",94,11,20

440 DATA "E362626246CF9FB0",95,11,21,"0000000000F8FE07",96,11,22,"DFDCD8DCCCE4F07C",97,12,11

450 DATA "F3793C7070707878",98,12,12,"C0C0E0F010004060",99,12,13,"0000000000010307",100,12,15

460 DATA "80000C1C1800040E",101,12,16,"0000060E0C000000",102,12,17,"1E00000000006064",103,12,18

470 DATA "0303000000020307",104,12,20,"71E105150F193323",105,12,21,"FB3B391919999B83",106,12,22

480 DATA "3C3C1E0F07030100",107,13,11,"7F3F0F0398CCE070",108,13,12,"6060707038300008",109,13,13

490 DATA "000000030F3F5F1E",110,13,14,"030F3BF1E0C08000",111,13,15,"06FCFFFE00000000",112,13,16

500 DATA "060F9E0000203010",113,13,17,"3437630100000000",114,13,18,"0080C0FC7E3F3F17",115,13,19

510 DATA "030307070382C6C4",116,13,20,"131B1A187973270F",117,13,21,"070E3C78F0E08000",118,13,22

520 DATA "381C0F0700000000",119,14,12,"0C1CDEFE0E070703",120,14,13,"3F3F33000000C0E0",121,14,14

530 DATA "0080E03F1F010403",122,14,15,"000000FFFFFF9222",123,14,16,"303000FFFFFF7272",124,14,17

540 DATA "000001FFFEF8600C",125,14,18,"1331B0C000000000",126,14,19,"8206060F0F1D1C38",127,14,20

550 DATA "0F1E3C78F0C00000",128,14,21,"0301000000000000",129,15,13,"E0F6FF3F1F070000",130,15,14

560 DATA "03010080C0E0F078",131,15,15,"82C0E0707F3F1F00",132,15,16,"70000001FFFFFE00",133,15,17

570 DATA "3870E0C080000103",134,15,18,"0001070F1E3C78E0",135,15,19,"F0E0C08000000000",136,15,20

580 DATA "3C1E0F0301000000",137,16,15,"00000080E0FF7F1F",138,16,16,"0000000001FFFFFF",139,16,17

590 DATA "03070F3EFCF0E080",140,16,18,"E0C0800000000000",141,16,19

Just stuff.

I didn't go to the Card National in Chicago this weekend. I did not meet Andre Dawson. I didn't even go to Chicago this weekend. I have pulled tendons in my foot and I have a bad cold as consolation prizes of this weekend #MondayMotivation


I did pickup some more cards (75 of them). My favorite is the Ryne Sandberg All-Star mustache.  picked up other HoFers.





I do have more programming done with DaLiLa and started a manual for it also.

something fun - 3d cone

10 CLS
15 SCREEN 9
20 FOR N=0 TO 100 STEP 2
30 CIRCLE (150+N,150),100-N,9
40 NEXT N


Replace N by N*0.8 or so, or even N*1.1, and the 3D cone effect will be stronger.

PS

I have something coding wise that I plan to announce soon.  A new programming language.  Waiting for it to mature to a certain level before I announce it.

More cards

Even though I will be in Chicago during the Nationals, and it free for me to get in, I will very likely not be attending this year. That said, I'm purchasing a lot of cards the last couple of days. 81 cards to be exact for only $11. Makes me wonder if the Baseball Card market is crashing. Every time I accumulate a lot of cards for very little, I don't complain. Mostly because I don't sell and I don't collect to profit. I just love Baseball and I just love baseball cards. Here are some Chicago White Sox, Stl Cardinals, and Chicago Cubs cards I picket up today. Also got a few HoF and All-star players.

Card shopping at Pokémon Fest in Normal Il with my kids

Cody and Ernie

Kerry Wood

Mark Grace


Gangar, V, and I

V and Phyduck


M and I
 

Computer intro 2 - Lets make it better

I believe I have mentioned several times that Odyssey 2's "Computer Intro!" was one of my first programming experiences. Before I was coding BASIC on and Extended BASIC on the TI-99/4A, I was pecking away on the Odyssey 2 keyboard.

Recently, I have created an extended "Computer Intro!" manual that that has functions never documented in the original manual.
https://mrgibson.com/o2man.php

One thing that bothered me the most, or should I say, disappointed me the most when I was young, was that output being limited to one line on the screen.

Output placement was implemented by specifying the position in register B starting with position 00.

Example:

00 6B LDV.B.00 ;Load display register B with position 00

No matter what value you entered into the position field, you were limited to one line of text, numbers, and special charactrs.

This is where if they had expanded this, this would have been a better and more entertaining programming environment.
Given that valid input could range from 00 to FF, in theory, that would have given us 256 different positions on the screen. Where 00 could have been the upper left corner. I'm going to try to reverse engineer the code and try to see if this functionality can be added.

Although it is true that in this environment there are 16 Registers, some have special purposes. Like Register B and Register C. So here is an example of the limits of text programming on "Computer Intro!" that uses Register B and C.
Example:

  Odyssey2 Computer Intro! Assembler has multiple ways of displaying the
  text "Hello World", one of the better methods is using the MOV instruction.

  00 6B LDV.B.00  ;Load display register B with position 00
  01 00
  02 60 LDV.0.00  ;load register 0 with NULL
  03 00
  04 6C LDV.C.12  ;Load data space register C with step 12
  05 12
  06 09 MOV       ;Move data space to accumulator
  07 30 BEQ.0.24  ;If NULL go to end
  08 24
  09 0B OTA       ;Display accumulator
  10 12 GTO.06    ;go back to move at step 06   
  11 06
  12 1D           ;H  Start of data space
  13 12           ;E
  14 0E           ;L
  15 0E           ;L
  16 17           ;O
  17 0C           ;space
  18 11           ;W 
  19 17           ;O
  20 13           ;R
  21 0E           ;L
  22 1A           ;D
  23 00           ;NULL  end of string
  24 00 NOP  

More on the TMS9900 CPU

 

The TMS9900 loads address 0000h and 0002h when power is applied, and it gets its workspace pointer (see previous post, the location in RAM where it will store its general purpose register file) and the starting PC value from those locations, but it also uses addresses 0000h through 0100h for interrupt and extended operation (think software interrupt) vectors, which, on a system with a general purpose operating system, almost certainly need to be in RAM. Contrast this to the 6502, which uses a zero page at 0000h through 0100h that usually must be in RAM, but loads its boot vector from FFFEh and FFFFh. This allows RAM to be located at address zero, and ROM the top of memory space. For the 9900, you almost need both RAM and ROM at address zero! The TIC Mk 0 (my first floating breadboard design) used a latch to redirect the ROM bank to the bottom of memory until the processor loads its first instruction, at which point it was shoved to the top of memory and RAM was addressed at address zero. However, the 9900 also has a LOAD line which, when brought low, causes the processor to load a workspace pointer and PC from addresses FFFCh and FFFEh; much more convenient! The Mk 1 is configured to latch LOAD low until the processor fetches its first instruction, and RAM is always low in memory while ROM is always high in memory.

TMS9900 CPU

Studying the TMS9900 processor of the 70s and 80s, I have learned that it was capable of Multi-user preemptive multiprocessing. This is very sad that I'm not aware of this every being utilized with the TI-99/4A computer. This can be done with workplace register pointers that can be handled by the CPU, but stored in memory.





Because we are using pointer, this can be changed on the fly. Because of the interrupt processes, we can go back and forth between tasks.

Texas Instruments Computer history

I have created a page that is a brief overview of Texas Instruments' Computer history.

This is the timeline of TI mini computers, TI desktop computers/home computers, and TI handheld computers.

 https://mrgibson.com/TI/ti-history.php

Terry Brooks in June.

I picked three new Terry Brooks books in June, One today. The one today was a real treat as I had never actually seen the book in person, "Street Freaks" and in hard cover. I will try to get these added to my book DB.

The other two books are:

"The Dark Legacy of Shannara - Ward of Farie" softcover

- and -

"The Fall of Shannara - the Stiehl Assassin" soft cover.

My TI-99 machines.

This is just a show and tell post.

This is my two TI-99/4As - my 2nd and my 3rd side by side.


TI #3 On my primary Dell monitor using TI's S-Video/Standard Audio to RCA to HDMI


TI #3


TI #2 beside my file/audio file server


My video switching system between my computers.






Testing math functionality against other retro computers like Atari, Apple, Commodore, and IBM


My favorite game controller for the TI-99 is Sega's Genesis




TI #2 displaying a randomizer application on my TV


TI #2 displaying a different randomizer on my TV


TI #2 displaying on my TV.


My TI #2