bartle@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Aron Bartle) (07/06/89)
This being my first posting, I'm still trying to adjust... Bear With Me... O.K. Here's my situation: A young (I was 10), impressionable person, becomes interested in computers. My first experience with one was at a community center class on a TI 99/4 (with the square little keyboard) encased in wood and running extended basic with a speech synthesizer and those little hundred-or-so word hardware add-ons that have since been outlawed. Naturally, I immediately fell in love and had to have one. ...Many years and peripherals later my system was the followiing: TI 99/4-A,extended basic,terminal emulator II,very many games(God I wasted so much money),peripheral expansion system,serial-paralell card,modem,printer,memory expansion(64K I think),and two disk drives. ...Since then I have almost completely lost all intrest in my junk and have spent my time hacking around on mainframes. (and you can tell I'm a pascal programmer by the way I compulsively indent) Now (I don't follow TI-news at all) it seems that there is a NEW TI (mayarc) that might help rescue my lost (gulp!) investment. I would like to know more about this thing, such as: Does it exist? Does it sell? (no stores around here carry it) Will it use any, or all of my hardware? (the expansion-tank for example) And, just what exactly IS it? I gather it has hi-res color graphics and large amounts of RAM, but I know no specifics. Any Info, either on comp.sys.ti or emailed to bartle@gondor.cs.psu.edu would be greatly appreciated. "...And thank you for you're support." -- my uncle Ed.
kamann@csm9a.UUCP (kamann) (07/07/89)
In article <4752@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu>, bartle@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Aron Bartle) writes: > > ...Since then I have almost completely lost all intrest in my junk and have > spent my time hacking around on mainframes. (and you can tell I'm a > pascal programmer by the way I compulsively indent) > You mention your Pascal style, have you ever considered a P-Code card? > > Now (I don't follow TI-news at all) it seems that there is a NEW TI (mayarc) > that might help rescue my lost (gulp!) investment. I would like to know > more about this thing, such as: Does it exist? Does it sell? (no stores > around here carry it) Will it use any, or all of my hardware? (the > expansion-tank for example) And, just what exactly IS it? I gather it > has hi-res color graphics and large amounts of RAM, but I know no > specifics. > I have seen many messages about "What is the Myarc Geneve?" so I thought I'd go ahead and post this to the network and hopefully answer everyones questions. The Myarc Geneve (sometimes refered to as the "swan") is someones answer to the "big" computer built from the TMS 9900 CPU. It is a 512k 'marvel'. It runs a home-made brew version of an operating system called M-DOS (note that M-DOS is NOT a Microsoft concoction, it is written by a guy named Paul Charlton under arrangement with Myarc). M-DOS is NOT IBM compatible, therefore the Geneve is not IBM compatible. M-DOS does resemble MS-DOS in many respects. I won't go into too many details about it. The Geneve does support a multitude of graphics modes, all considerably better than those available on the TI. The machine is mostly TI compatible. There have been some problems, but patches have been found for most of them. As for performance, according to benchmark tests (not performed by myself), the Geneve is close to the speed of a 10 mHz machine (I think the actual is 12 mHz, correct me if I'm wrong). The machine is also compatible hardware wise with almost ALL the hardware currently available for the TI. Overall, the thing is pretty impressive, but there are still things being worked out, and promises that were made that have not been met. Most software for the machine (machine specific software) is written in assembly language, although there is a Fortran compiler for it (I don't know how complete as I don't have it). There is also Basic for the machine, but that is still in the pre-release versions (or was last time I heard anything). Oh yeah, there is also a 'C' compiler, but again I am not sure as to its completeness. As for availability, the Geneve is NOT sold in stores. There are a few supply companies that are still supporting the TI, and if anyone is interested I can post those addresses and names to the NET. I would also recommend contacting your local Users Group. If you don't know where they are I can probably find out for you (if there is one in your area). Before I forget, the Geneve sells for around $500. It is a card that goes into the expansion box, and you'll probably want to get a real monitor ($200-300) for it, otherwise 80 column mode is a little hard to read. Lastly, a good source of information about topics like this is bulletin boards. Anyone with a modem and a telecommunications package can get on to one of your local boards that supports the TI. There are close to 160 BBSs in the United States alone that support the TI! Now, I don't own a Geneve, but I've stated what I know. If I have made any misleading statements please feel free to correct me. Since I kinda keep up with this news group, does anyone know how many subscribers there are? More for curiousities sake than anything, thanks in advance! Keith Amann Senior, Colorado School of Mines Bitnet: KAMANN@MINES Internet: Couldn't tell you
chuck@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Chuck A. Nicholas) (07/11/89)
In article <1643@csm9a.UUCP> kamann@csm9a.UUCP (kamann) writes: >In article <4752@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu>, bartle@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Aron Bartle) writes: >> >> ...Since then I have almost completely lost all intrest in my junk and have >> spent my time hacking around on mainframes. (and you can tell I'm a >> pascal programmer by the way I compulsively indent) >> >You mention your Pascal style, have you ever considered a P-Code card? >> > >The Myarc Geneve (sometimes refered to as the "swan") is someones answer to >the "big" computer built from the TMS 9900 CPU. It is a 512k 'marvel'. It >runs a home-made brew version of an operating system called M-DOS (note that >M-DOS is NOT a Microsoft concoction, it is written by a guy named Paul >Charlton under arrangement with Myarc). M-DOS is NOT IBM compatible, >therefore the Geneve is not IBM compatible. M-DOS does resemble MS-DOS in >many respects. I won't go into too many details about it. > >The machine is also compatible hardware wise with almost ALL the hardware >currently available for the TI. The 9640 does not/ can not access the P-Code card. There is supposed to be a disk based version of Pecan 4.1 run time Pascal (someday). >Overall, the thing is pretty impressive, but there are still things being >worked out, and promises that were made that have not been met. Most >software for the machine (machine specific software) is written in >assembly language, although there is a Fortran compiler for it (I don't >know how complete as I don't have it). The Fortran compiler is very well done, with very complete documentation. It is based on F77 with extensions to provide support for graphics, etc. >There is also Basic for the machine, but that is still in the pre-release >versions (or was last time I heard anything). Basic is supposed to be complete, only "known" bug is due to a bug in the Op sys, not basic itself. >Oh yeah, there is also a 'C' compiler, but .. sure as to its completeness. The C "compiler" is based on small C so it is not complete and it is actually outputs assembler which must be assembled and linked to produce the object code. This product is very good but is not in the same class as the Fortran compiler that was released as a commercial product (srp 69.00). Small C is shareware. >As for availability, the Geneve is NOT sold in stores. Mail order. Tenex, TexComp are two reputable companies. Machine comes with a nice IBM style keyboard, mouse is extra. > >Before I forget, the Geneve sells for around $500. It is a card that >goes into the expansion box, and you'll probably want to get a real >monitor ($200-300) for it, otherwise 80 column mode is a little hard to >read. There is a patch file to turn of the color burst signal that makes 80 col mode readable in mono. You would want a decent ANALOG rgb monitor for maximum use. >Lastly, a good source of information about topics like this is bulletin >boards. Anyone with a modem and a telecommunications package can get on >to one of your local boards that supports the TI. There are close to >160 BBSs in the United States alone that support the TI! > I do own a 9640 and have had it for 2 1/2 years. The computer is finally in a state where I could recommend it to someone interested in upgrading from a TI. It offers graphics capabilites superior to most other systems other than Amiga and very close to Atari ST. The main drawbacsk were a lack of software specific to the Geneve (It does run 90% TI software at roughly 2x TI speed) and the lack of a stable OS. The OS is fairly stable now and there is a hanful of nice Geneve specific software becoming available (A GIF viewer, a Mac Paint Viewer). When Pascal and a "real C" become available I expect we will see more software for the machine. chuck nicholas Dept Computing Org EECS dept Univ fo Mich Ann Arbor, MI
kamann@csm9a.UUCP (kamann) (07/12/89)
In article <176@zip.eecs.umich.edu>, chuck@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Chuck A. Nicholas) writes: > > The 9640 does not/ can not access the P-Code card. There is supposed to be > a disk based version of Pecan 4.1 run time Pascal (someday). > I did not mean to imply that the Myarc would access the P-Code card, sorry. > > The Fortran compiler is very well done, with very complete documentation. It is > based on F77 with extensions to provide support for graphics, etc. > Does the Fortran compiler support CHARACTER data types, COMMON Blocks, etc? If not, are there plans for it in the future? Maybe a good reference frame would be the Fortran 99 Package, how much more is there (if you ever saw Fortran 99)? > > specific software becoming available (A GIF viewer, a Mac Paint Viewer). When > Pascal and a "real C" become available I expect we will see more software for the > machine. > Say, have you seen the Pascal compiler that was released several months back? I was kinda curious if anyone had it, and how complete it is? Based on the source code I saw in Micropendium several months ago I would say that it isn't worth the money (that's why I keep asking about it instead of buying it). Also, thank you for correcting me. As I said, I don't have one, just know a little about them. Keith Amann Senior, CSM BITNET: KAMANN@MINES Internet: Who Knows?