sumit (11/04/82)
Can anyone tell me why the TI micro's ( the 99xx series ) are not as commonplace as they could have been. I have used one of them a few years back for a very short time, and it looked pretty good to me. Yet the only place I see it mentioned is the TI home computer. The chip I used had the register bank in memory, and was probably quite slow for that reason. But it had VERY fast context switching. I understand now TI has versions which has a choice of register banks on chip or in memory. And the instruction set seems to be full pdp11 type. Anyway what is the reason for no popularity? Or are they in much use in industry with we commonplace people not knowing about them? Sumit U of Rochester
marks (11/08/82)
The TI 99xx had rather poor/expensive support (due mainly to TIs insistance on doing everything itself). It also lacked, for quite a while, the low end cheap chips needed for low end products. The biggest problem, though, is/was TI. If you weren't going to directly buy a LOT of chips ($1MEG) they weren't too interested. Furthermore, after BOWMAR, few companies felt like cooperating closely with TI on new products which would require TI's new chips but also force one to tell TI what you were planning several years out. TI's a great source for jelly beans or other second sourcable chips, but not for things which require a lot of support from a trustable supplier. (Unless you're GM, IBM, or anyone else who doesn't need to worry.) Doubtless this perception's not fully supported by TI's real, as opposed to legendary, behavior. And certainly not by its official policy. But companies, and people, when the crunch comes, tend to revert to type. Who needs another worry?
wapd (11/08/82)
What was the meaning of the reference to BOWMAR ? Did TI cut off supplies to BOWMAR, renege on an agreement, leak their plans, or what ? Just curious. Bill Dietrich houxj!wapd
marks (11/09/82)
As for BOWMAR/TI: Bowmar assembled calculators based on TI chips. It later claimed it had verbal assurances that TI would not compete with it. TI did start its own calculator line, which undercut the price BOWMAR could afford. Many charges flew back and forth about this. BOWMAR never won a lawsuit, went bankrupt. TI has managed to hold a large chunk of the market with its integrated calculator products. Could BOWMAR have held out against the Japanese? Did TI stop reducing chip costs to BOWMAR? Very slow shipping new parts, as BOWMAR claimed? Much argument, no legal decision: think BOWMAR eventually lost a round in court and gave up. Given that Bowmar couldn't win in a Massachusetts court against that big bad Texan TI, seems clear that TI was absolutely legal. Would you want to base a new product you hope will make it really big on a TI unique chip?