ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 1991 LIMA NEWSLETTER
THE TI-99/7
by Richard Tarrant
This device was apparently never built, but its
1981 design specifications were probably the inspiration for the 99/8.
The 99/7 is discussed in a June 16, 1980 BUSINESS WEEK article
We have a copy of the following documentation from TI: "TI 99/7 COMPUTER HARDWARE THEORY OF OPERATION, Corporate Engineering Center, Dallas, By Richard Tarrant", dated 13 July 81. Based on this document, it appears the 99/7 was going to be based on the 9900 CPU, fully software compatible with the 99/4 (without the A), and include ALL OF THE FOLLOWING WITHIN THE SAME CASE (not as separate peripherals)- 64K of short wait state memory, speech, a "pascal grom", an 80 column thermal printer, an acoustic modem, and a 5.25 inch disk drive controller. The following is quoted from this document: "The TI 99/7 computer incorporates the 99/4 home computer mainframe architecture with the 99/4 peripheral controllers plus expanded memory into the case plastics of the Digital Systems 765 terminal for compactness and portability. The TI 99/7 will retain software compatibility with the 99/4 while providing additional faster access memory as well as a larger keyboard and 80 column printer "A comparison of features between a 99/4 with its external peripherals and the 99/7 is as follows: [(memory in bytes/microseconds access per (word) or (byte)] 99/4 (** means external peripheral required)
TI-99/7
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