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Texas Instruments PPC

alexkerhead

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
839
Location
Montgomery, AL USA
Wow, I got this 55lb moster in today(thanks to Erik), cleaned her up, and booted her, to my suprise, it is the color version...Woot!
This was made almost six months before the SX-64, making it even more special.
This is by farest the coolest vintage computer I have ever seen.
Boots to some kind of odd proprietary OS called "menu1" seen in image.
We thought the HDD was bad, but I guess the shifting from shipment got her working..lol
Here is the page on my museum with specs and images.
http://www.ubertechworld.com/museum/ubertech-museum_TI_PPC.htm
The case is not yellowish at all, it is just the wierd lighting. The keys are yellowed however, but most old puters have yellow keys.
I am still shocked at how cool this thing is.
Thanks Erik.
TI_PPC_7.jpg
 
How does the keyboard feel? Back in the 1980's I had some computer magazines that showed the original TI Professional Computer and I allways wanted one (loved the way the keyboard looked and thaught the special video resolution was cool).

This is a DOS compatible not IBM PC compatible I believe.
 
Keyboard has great response and great positioning. The video is crisp, unlike every other portable's green screens at the time. You're right, doesn't like DOS apps, but will read the disks and run DOS 2.1.
The keys would be great for tetris, but tetris won't run..lol, not compatible, giving overflow errors.
 
You're welcome, but don't thank me. ;)

I got an email from a guy offering me this for shipping so I asked where he was located. As it turned out he was about four miles from here and the price was right, so. . .

I'm glad the HD shook itself loose! It was acting pretty flaky before I boxed it. I'm also glad it made it in one piece!

Enjoy!
 
Terry, do you know where that version of flight sim could be found by any chance?

Erik, I hope you didn't pull a muscle carrying this thing, my right arm is longer than my left after I carried it inside to my room...lol
It has some wierd software installed, with three partitions, it uses the C: drive as an active booter, and loads off files from the E: drive to it on boot, and uses D: as some sort of paging drive.
I want to partition, format, and load DOS 2.1 back on, but it boots from HDD only, and I cannot figure out howto boot from the floppy drive.
 
Correction.
The E: drive is the Hard disk, and the C: drive is some type of ram memory, and the D: drive is a rom disk of some sort.
This is really wierd, does anyone have any kind of place to find some info on this? I can't find any with search engines.
 
If you hit (or hold down) 'DEL' during the boot-up, it will boot from the floppy drive (either one, depending where your boot disk is inserted). The other behavior is 'normal' for the TIPC. Unlike IBM versions of DOS, it reserves the first four drive letters for floppies, so the hard drive comes up as E:.

--T
 
NO, I CERTAINLY DON'T KNOW OF ANY FAN SITES OUT THERE, UMMM, NO NOT ONE COMES TO MIND. AND HTTP://GROUPS.YAHOO.COM/GROUP/
TANDY2000 SURE WOULDN'T BE OF ANY INTEREST EITHER. UNLESS OF COURSE WE'RE DEALING WITH ONE OF THEM THERE INCOMPATIBLES. WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY? O IT IS A PUDDY TAT. LAND O' GOSHEN YOU DON'T SAY.
Yeah, picked up mine not too long ago. I do have a few things for it, not much. Interested in COBAL? No, not COBOL...something else ;). I'll have to dig out my crap. I'll send you whatever I got. See if there's anything cool on that hard drive. Software, in particular COMPILERS are tough to find for these crazy things. And yes it does seem to predate the SX-64. Something like they announced it in 1/83, but it took a year to be released. And the TIPPC was out in '83, so therefore it probably is the first bona-fide color portable.
You get used to it's weight. Don't seem too bad anymore. Just don't pick up one of those flimsy, what were they called, Kompax? All that groovy color comes with a price. Install a set of wheels if it's that much of a problem.
 
TIPPC Software

TIPPC Software

I have three of these machines, and a lot of software. One of my TIPPCs is an upgrade model with a Soyo 286 board that runs MS-DOS. There other two are standard versions - one with a HDD and one without. The standard version with the HDD won't boot from the HDD due to what appears to be a dead internal battery.

About six years ago I got in touch with an ex-TI employee who worked on the development of this computer. He sent me a ton of stuff, including all sorts of prototype/development boards, technical manuals and drafts of same, and a bunch of software. I also have a lot of TIPPC flavor software that I got from other sources. Some of it is glitchy; some works. I also have various versions of TIPPC DOS - at least 1.13 and 2.1.

I had planned to take a bunch of this stuff to VCF and make a nice display of it, but instead last year I brought IBM stuff (5120 and S/23).

One of the coolest pieces of software I have is TIPPC Star Trek - looks great on the color version.

I am remodeling the house right now (nearly done) so a lot of this stuff is in the garage in piles of boxes. I will look around and see what I have if you're interested. Of course to copy something I will have to relearn how to format a 5 1/4" floppy on TIPPC-DOS (shouldn't be hard) and also scrounge up a blank disc or two.

-W
 
TIPPC Software

TIPPC Software

> I can send ya some floppy disks and mailers if ya need 'em.

Probably no need - I know I have a few hundred, just need to locate them. First I'll find what I have in the way of TIPPC software. The only thing I see so far is Digital Research's CP/M 2.2 for the TIPPC, which is a bit of strange thing if you think about it, but I've just started to look.

-W
 
TIPPC Software

TIPPC Software

Looked a bit more and found MS-DOS, WordPerfect 4.1 for the TIPPC and the Flight Sim manual, also for the TIPPC, but no disk in the pocket. If I have it, it must be in one of the several boxes of disks I have - and I know those are buried in a box in the garage.
 
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