18 ms·
(Not relevant to this demo in particular, just a piece of trivia I only learned in the past few years:) It makes sense to think of the TI-99 as part of the 8-bi
by arundelo 10y ago
(Not relevant to this demo in particular, just a piece of trivia I only learned in the past few years:) It makes sense to think of the TI-99 as part of the 8-bit microcomputer boom of the 1980s (Commodore 64, Apple II, TRS-80), but it actually had a 16-bit processor! (Which communicated with most of the rest of the computer through an 8-bit bus.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A#First_personal_computer_with_a_16-bit_processor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A#Fir...
- cmrdporcupine 10y agoYeah, 16-bit data bus but only 16-bit address bus. So still has the limitation of 64k memory which was really the chief defect of machines of that era.
- Narishma 10y agoI wouldn't call it a defect. It's just a limitation, which could and did get worked around to a certain extent with various bank switching schemes.
- cmrdporcupine 10y agoWell it was a hindrance and probably the chief reason people wanted to upgrade later to 16-bits. In reality a 6502 or Z80 at 1-3mhz with supporting circuity was probably fast enough for most people's needs, but the memory sizes and lack of 80 column displays gave those machines limited usefulness for the things people needed computers for at the time: word processing, home spreadsheets, etc.
- Narishma 10y agoThe contemporary of the Apple II and TRS-80 was the Commodore PET. The C64 came much later.
- arundelo 10y agoI'm talking about 8-bit microcomputers in general, from the late seventies to the mid-to-late eighties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_computer#Notable_home_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_computer#Notable_home_com... EDIT: I owned a Commodore 64 and a TRS-80 in the eighties, and used an Apple IIe at school. These were all programmable in Basic, and although the C64 was clearly the most powerful, they were all similar in power compared to, say, an Amiga.