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Ti-990

If you run across any more docs on that system, please let us know.
I never had any, other than what CAE provided to Royal Air Maroc. It was just a weird coincidence that I ended up maintaining the simulator - I went there the first time to support an Alpha Micro system that was intended to just track their inventory of spare parts for the simulator. As I was getting ready to head back to the US, one of my site contacts asked me if I knew anything about other computers, and I said yes.

It turns out that they didn't purchase a maintenance contract for the simulator, and as parts broke they'd used up all of their good on-site spares. They then resorted to finding I/O boards where one channel wasn't used on that particular simulator and swap the bad board into that position where the defect didn't matter because that particular channel wasn't used in that position. So any further board swapping would either introduce 2 new defects and keep the original defect (if neither swapped board was actually causing the original problem) or would swap the original problem for 2 new unrelated ones.

This could cause some pretty jarring side effects (remember, these I/O boards are doing things like controlling the hydraulic actuators that make the simulator pitch and yaw). The software control that provided limits to those movements had no effect if the interface card was bad - you'd go from level flight to "anything not nailed down flying around the cockpit" in an instant. After I fixed the original problem they asked me to look at, I said that they needed to get all of the other in-service cards back to a state of 100% functionality as well as the spares. I ended up staying for an extra 2 weeks or so that time, repairing a bunch of the cards. They had all of the test equipment, etc. needed - they had just never been trained on component-level repair.

At the time, they had one 747, which was the only plane in their fleet capable of flying CMN-JFK non-stop. It had a convertible interior and could be configured for passenger service, freight, or their equivalent of Air Force One for the King. When I was finished and ready to head home, that plane wasn't available as the King was on extended international travel. After around a week and a half, the airline decided to charter a flight back to JFK from Air Canada for me and a half dozen travel agents that had also become stuck in Morocco (they didn't want to antagonize the agents who were responsible for bringing in tourists with American dollars). So it was a 747 with only 7 passengers.

Reading about the governments of Hassan II and his successor, Mohammed VI, makes it sound like a horrible place to be. To myself as a naive 20-year-old it seemed like a nice place - people in Casablanca were friendly and could go about their lives seemingly without oppression. The army was visible but also friendly. The only hint that not all was as it should be was that the currency exchange rate was a lot better at the illegal exchanges, and the rate depended on the size of the bills you brought, with $100 bills getting the most favorable rate. I did observe an incident with bandits out in the desert (freaky / very scary).

A much nicer and open place than Venezuela, where I also went on a consulting job. Any time the customer says "Thank goodness you're here!" with a sense of excited relief when you're just installing a protocol converter makes you want to ask why they're so relieved. The answer I got was "The bank sent down a VP and the rebels kidnapped him, burned the white Bentley and killed the driver we sent to pick him up. Just last week the VP staggered down from the hills half-starved in his underwear when he escaped." NOT the kind of thing you want to hear. And when trying to leave, stereotypical dark-eyeglass-wearing Latin American army types were roaming the airport, picking people at random and saying "Pay airport tax!" while having one hand on their weapons. Apparently this "tax" wend directly into the pocket of the each of the army guys.
 
I never had any, other than what CAE provided to Royal Air Maroc. It was just a weird coincidence that I ended up maintaining the simulator

[cut backstory, but that's some wild stuff!]

Interesting. We had a couple of guys in our old user group who maintained a Link helicopter trainer at a nearby Army airfield. That simulator was controlled by an H316, iirc.

I see CAE is buying the Military Training division of L3Harris, which includes Link Simulation and Training.

jbdigriz
 
I always wanted a 990 but didn't get a chance at one until recently when I lucked into a Business System 300, which seems to be basically a 990/10A with an integrated disk controller built into a terminal enclosure. It came with no peripherals, of course, so now I'm hunting for a keyboard and a WD500 or WD800 mass storage system as well as any documentation/software I can find. The system looks to be maxed out to 512K memory and with all optional I/O, and even more interestingly has a "PBIC" card in place of the usual 2/4-port terminal card they were offered with, it seems like it might be some sort of CRU buffer card to allow the machine to interface to an external expansion chassis, but I've never found any mention of it anywhere as an option.

Other than the hardware, if anyone has any information or even just commentary on these machines I'd love to hear about it! They seem like a killer system for a space-constrained mini enthusiast, but there isn't much out there on them aside from a couple documents on Bitsavers and some product announcements in InfoWorld/Computerworld and the like.

Have you been able to take this system apart for board photos and ROM dumps? What looks like a board set for an S300 or some variant has turned up, but there are some differences from the grainy Business System 300 Paper on bitsavers, and one of the ROMS on the terminal board has had the cap knocked off, among other possible issues. Photos and dumps would be VERY helpful, if you can post them here or send to bitsavers.

[okay, I see of course you don't have the terminal board in yours, but pics and dumps of any roms on the PBIC card as well as the system board. power supplies, etc. would be helpful.]

jbdigriz
 
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I bought the boards that showed up today, and put copies of the ebay pictures on bitsavers. The big difference I see between the picture in the paper and what I bought is if it has ECC memory
 
Concur. I will be checking with some sources to see if it can be pinned down further.
 
Its good to see some interest in the TI-990, I just happen to have one being shipped to me right now. It's not a complete system though and comprises just the 13 slot chassis, 990/10 and the programmer panel. I figure I need some additional I/O and would love to get a serial terminal and floppy/hard drive interface up and running.
If anyone has suggestion for the minimum specification (additional) hardware to achieve this then it would be much appreciated.
 
I have quite a few spare assorted CRU boards, if it comes to that. More than I'll ever need.
 
I have quite a few spare assorted CRU boards, if it comes to that. More than I'll ever need.

Thanks - do you happen to have one of the TTY/EIA CRU 946240-9701 and associated adapter cards available please ? I believe its part number 975200-0001
 
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Its good to see some interest in the TI-990, I just happen to have one being shipped to me right now. It's not a complete system though and comprises just the 13 slot chassis, 990/10 and the programmer panel. I figure I need some additional I/O and would love to get a serial terminal and floppy/hard drive interface up and running.
If anyone has suggestion for the minimum specification (additional) hardware to achieve this then it would be much appreciated.

You will need memory also. I have some excess /10 memory boards. Dusty and untested, but have them. Like bear said, if all else fails... Shipping from here to UK would not be cheap. If you're going to be using a serial terminal or an emulator, you may want to use a CI402 or better serial interface. Another option that has been mentioned here is a /5 cpu board, which has an onboard serial port. The /10A does also.

There is some 990 stuff on ebay.co.uk right now, btw. Seller is reasonable, and should have other items that aren't listed.
 
Thanks - do you happen to have one of the TTY/EIA CRU 946240-9701 and associated adapter cards available please ? I believe its part number 975200-0001

The boards I have spare are 945075-0001 EIA RS232, 946076-0005 Dual 911 VDT, and 2263480-0001 EXACU.
 
Thanks all.
Its the 990/10A model I have with 512K on board. The card and 13 slot chassis arrived today and so I plugged in the programmers panel I have had for some time.

It works - I have basic control over the machine from the programmer panel.
Yes, the /10A has the serial port on board so if I can get some software to use it (and an adaptor cable made up) then I may be ok.

I have my eye on a spectralogic card for disk I/o and need to find some archaic compatible drives to use with it.
I'm reliably informed that I need at least 5MB of space for DX10 and more for DNOS - so floppy drive working is not an option for anything useful.
 
I always wanted a 990 but didn't get a chance at one until recently when I lucked into a Business System 300, which seems to be basically a 990/10A with an integrated disk controller built into a terminal enclosure. It came with no peripherals, of course, so now I'm hunting for a keyboard and a WD500 or WD800 mass storage system as well as any documentation/software I can find. The system looks to be maxed out to 512K memory and with all optional I/O, and even more interestingly has a "PBIC" card in place of the usual 2/4-port terminal card they were offered with, it seems like it might be some sort of CRU buffer card to allow the machine to interface to an external expansion chassis, but I've never found any mention of it anywhere as an option.

Other than the hardware, if anyone has any information or even just commentary on these machines I'd love to hear about it! They seem like a killer system for a space-constrained mini enthusiast, but there isn't much out there on them aside from a couple documents on Bitsavers and some product announcements in InfoWorld/Computerworld and the like.
A WD500 just came up on Ebay today. Procrustes pulled the winchester, however, and I don't see the PBI cable or a TPBI board (for 990 use) Should be able to make a cable easily enough, though. Broke right now. Figures.
 
I'm now looking for a TI-990 chassis, to host a 990/10A cpu.

I bought the 990/10A cpu, Spectralogic 26 controller (disk, tape), and Cobol accelerator from Ed Norman in the UK.

I have a refurbished 8" SA850 floppy (DSDD) but no way to get it on TILINE.

Any ideas? I see a chassis on eBay for $1250 in the Dallas area, which I could possibly drive to, but that seems like a lot of money.
 
I'm now looking for a TI-990 chassis, to host a 990/10A cpu.

I bought the 990/10A cpu, Spectralogic 26 controller (disk, tape), and Cobol accelerator from Ed Norman in the UK.

I have a refurbished 8" SA850 floppy (DSDD) but no way to get it on TILINE.

Any ideas? I see a chassis on eBay for $1250 in the Dallas area, which I could possibly drive to, but that seems like a lot of money.
I recall Ed had some chassis available too ? I bought one from him a couple of years back.

Not progressed much with the 990/10 system I have, so have gone ahead and just acquired another system for the backlog ! its a 990/5 in a complete 13 slot pedestal chassis along with a 911 VDT controller and FD100 flexible disk controller. It happens to come with a 911 VDT keyboard but of course I have no VDT terminal to plug it into. One day, I may find enough parts to make a working system.
 
And here is the second TI-990.
Its a beast of a pedestal sized 19" rack mounted 13 slot chassis fitted with a 990/5 CPU card, TI FD1000 disk controller and 911 VDT interface. The keyboard is nice but not much use without the bespoke VDT terminal. One keycap missing - anyone happen to know what keyswitch type they are ?
PXL_20230114_181455112.jpg
 
During the last days I collected a bunch of 8" diskettes for the TI-990 systems.

I listed the disks in the table below.

I try to get them imaged so that they can be made available via bitsavers - if they are not yet available and interesting enough.
So far I did only see different versions of some of the software on bitsavers.

Martin


TI 990
8 inch Diskettes
PrintoutPrintoutDisk LabelDisk LabelDisk LabelDisk LabelDisk Label
DISC I.D.911 AMPLTX 1.1.0 2250407-1601FS990 AMPL 911VDT SYSRELEASE 1.12250407-1601REF. MANUAL 2250408-9701 FOR INSTRUCTIONS
DISC I.D.CMDLIB AMPLTX 1.1.0 2250407-1603FS990 AMPL COMMAND LIBRELEASE 1.12250407-1603REF. MANUAL 2250408-9701 FOR INSTRUCTIONS
DISC I.D.AMPL 913 SYSTEM 939801-0001*CREV C AMPL 913 VDT SYSTEM (24K), AMPL UTILITY, PROCS AND SYS 913RELEASE 2.939801-0001REF. MANUAL 946244-9701 (24K OP GUIDE) AND 949621-9701 (TUTOTIAL) FOR OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
DISC I.D.AMPL 913 SYSTEM 939801-0001*CREV C AMPL 913 VDT SYSTEM (24K), AMPL UTILITY, PROCS AND SYS 913RELEASE 2.939801-0001REF. MANUAL 946244-9701 (24K OP GUIDE) AND 949621-9701 (TUTOTIAL) FOR OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
DISC I.D.AMPL 733 SYSTEM 939801-0002*CAMPL 733 ASR SYSTEM (16K)RELEASE 2.939801-0002REF. MANUAL 949620-9701 (16K OP GUIDE) FOR OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
DISC I.D.-REV C. AMPL 911 VDT SYSTEM (24K) AMPL UTILITY, PROGS AND SYS911RELEASE 2939801-0003REF. MANUAL 946244-9701 (24K OP GUIDE) AND 949621-9701 (TUTOTIAL) FOR OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
DISC I.D.TX990P 2250446-1601 *A V2.4TX990 PARTS (OBJECT) DISKETTERELEASE 2.3P/N 2250446-1601REF. TX990 OBJECT INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261725-9701 OR TXDS OBJECT INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-9701
DISC I.D.-913 VDT SYSTEM DISKETTE, TXDSRELEASE 2.3P/N 2250446-1602REF. TXDS OBJECT INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-9701
DISC I.D.-733 ASR SYSTEM DISKETTE, TXDSRELEASE 2.3P/N 2250446-1603REF. TXDS OBJECT INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-9701
DISC I.D.SYS911 2250446-1604 ** V2.3911 VDT SYSTEM DISKETTE, TXDSRELEASE 2.3P/N 2250446-1604REF. TXDS OBJECT INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-9701
DISC I.D.TXDSUT 2250466-1605 ** V2.3TXDS UTILITIES DISKETTERELEASE 2.3P/N 2250446-1605REF. TXDS OBJECT INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-9701
DISC I.D.TXDSLE 2250446-1606 ** V2.3TXDS LINK EDITOR DISKETTERELEASE 2.3P/N 2250446-1606REF. TXDS OBJECT INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-9701
DISC I.D.AMPL 911 SYSTEM 939801-0003*CTX990 PARTS (OBJECT) DISKETTERELEASE 2.MP/N 2250446-1601REFERENCE TXDS INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261725-9701 OR TXDS INSTALLATION NO. 2261731-9701
12.07.1979​
DISC I.D.TXDSUT 2250446-1605 *A V2.4TXDS UTILITIES DISKETTERELEASE 2.4P/N 2250446-1605REFERENCE TXDS INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-9701
12.07.1979​
DISC I.D.TXDSLE 2250446-1606 *A V2.4TXDS LINK EDITOR DISKETTERELEASE 2.4P/N 2250446-1606REFERENCE TXDS INSTALLATION MANUAL NO. 2261731-970112.7.79, 12.6.79
DISC I.D.TXDSLE 2250446-1606 *A V2.4LINK EDITORV2.4handwritten label, copy
DISC I.D.TXDS FTN COMP+RTM REL.3.0TXDS FORTRAN RUNTIMERELEASE 3.00936136-1602 *CREF. MANUALS: 2261737-9701 TXDS FORTRAN INSTALLATION
DISC I.D.POWER BASIC DISC + EPROM COPYOPERATING SYSTEM SYS/AMP EDITORhandwritten label, copy
 
Could somebody with a ti-990 system with a programmers panel take some pictures of the rear of the panel, i'm hoping it has some component designations on for the LED, it's not clear from the schematic if they are in the same order as they are on the panel.
I'm building a pcb for a replica programmers panel to connect to my 990/10A processor board.

Many thanks,

Jim
 
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