I've got a working DS990/1 , mine is actually a TI model 915 terminal but i upgraded it with the boards from a DS990/1 The 2 removal panels were for a dual tape drive option, the centre panel is for a printer option. Strangely enough i'm missing one of the panels as well. I don't have the drives for mine but it is working with a Gotek. The 3 DB 25 ports are 2 serial ports and the 3rd one is an optional serial port which needs an extra card inside (which looks like yours has) The cards should go in specific slots, they are colour coded with dots on the cage. The front processor board is part of the floppy drive controller, the board behind that is the data separator for the floppy drive. I've not seen the small card at the back before, mine hasn't got it and neither has any others i've seen inside of, would be interesting to see more of that card. Yes, you do need a disk to get it to do pretty much anything, without a disk to boot from you will just get an error code in the corner of the screen and nothing will work. There are a small group of us on Atariage with DS990/1 and other related TI990 systems. I have a TI990/5 and TI990/10A as well forums.atariage.com/forum/345-tomy-tutor-cc40-992-998-cortex-990-mini/ There is also sometimes discussion on forum.vcfed.org/index.php?forums/texas-instruments.65/
My hunch is the second processor would be primarily for the floppies since the system pre-dates LSI floppy controller chips. Handling sector buffers, CRC calculations, etc, requires a fair bit of processing support. TI did offer a TMS9909 (I think) floppy controller in the early 1980s but I never saw one on a board.
Just found your channel, and this takes me back to 1990. My first real job out of high school had me repairing the monitor portion of these TI terminals. I think the 931 was the bulk of this type and the 935 that you could find in O'Reilly Auto Parts 20 years later. Governmental institutions were stuck on this hardware long after its EOL and paid through the nose to keep it running. One of the daughterboards in the terminal had a JBS sticker on it; they were our main competitor in Houston. Get a TI 810 printer for it and go to town.
I THINK these might have been geared more towards being a 'roll your own' cash register for pretty much anything/anyone with an existing UPC system that didn't want to shell out exorbitant fees for their proprietary POS terminals. There weren't all that many off the shelf options that could do that with other POS backends, but TI was definitely a player.. That whole issue was pretty much obsoleted by IBM overnight and a LOT of smart terminals like these that no one's heard of went away as fast as they appeared.
Well, that brings me back! I used those back in the late 1980s when I worked with Geophysical Service Inc (GSI), which was then a division of Texas Instruments (despite GSI having being the company that actually founded TI) There were two models of that terminal: one with fixed keyboard (used with the TI-CMS, or "Configurable Marine System"), and one where the keyboard could be detached (used with the TI-TSR, or Trace Sequential Recorder). I'm not aware that any info now exists on those systems. We hooked these terminals into TI-990B mini computers which were so truly terrible in their quality of construction, that even sneezing near one could actually cause the system to freeze. The 990s were populated with massive, super-flexible, PCBs (some of which were wire-wrapped)m and which, if dropped or subjected to shock, would eject half of the socketed ICs all over the floor. As we were using these on a ship in the North Sea, this was less than ideal. As I remember, we also use the dual disc pack you have as a boot controller for the overall system. I remember being told that GSI was one of the biggest users of this hardware, although who knows. Given how terrible it was (compared to HP or IBM) I couldn't imagine anyone else investing in it! Certainly we felt like had drawn the short straw in having to work with it.. Oh, and the central section of the terminal was used for built-in printer. One possible place to find info and photos of this hardware is Facebook. So here a picture of the terminal as being used by a land seismic crew in Canada. facebook.com/photo/?fbid=449792427443521&set=a.2885252701518589
Thanks for the info and the link! I know GSI used a lot of 980s, was not sure about 990s. Not familiar with a 990B. BTW, as that TSR terminal possibly a model 914? Be nice to find more info on the CMS and TSR, anyway.
I read somewhere that the DS990 Model 1 was used in some way in the design of the TI-99! I like to think the DS990 Model 1 is the Commodore PET to the TI-99
If I remember correctly, I once saw a photograph or ad of this machine, and it immediately looked to me as if it was meant as a rival to the HP 9845 workstation, which looked *very* similar if you only see the whole machine. Of course the 9845 played in a totally different league, but the integral design with expansion areas for two tape drives and a thermal printer in the middle strongly reminded me to the HP 9845, which was, of course, much more capable (and expensive) than this TI jewel.
Interesting how that display does have a cool retrofuturistic design... that on the other hand could be (anachronistically) described as a regular 4:3 screen framed by a chunky "widescreen" bezel. Except of course widescreen was a thing only at cinema theatres, not computer monitors.
Just started watching, and before I continue, I have to say I am very excited to watch this video..! I have a DS990 Model 1, sitting right next to me, with matching FD1000 drive about a meter further. I can't get the dang thing to work, I think it has a reset issue, and the drives are in rough shape. I also have software. I think. On disks that have track damage. I've imaged them, but I don't have anything useful from what I can see. I've been meaning to get back into that project, but have a backlog of other things to do first... life! Anyway, back to the video! Edits: The inset you mention at 7:12 is actually where an optional (thermal?) printer could be installed. At least, in the TI Model 770 series, which the DS990 Model 1 shares its chassis. In fact, there was an official upgrade kit that TI sold for the Model 770 series that 'upgraded' it to a DS990 Model 1! Optional to the upgrade was to get the FD1000, since the 771 (I think) had a FD800. And just in case you mention them, the two panels either side was for the tape drives that the 770's used. Yep! Just as I unpaused! Ok at 11:20, the first 990 is for the floppy drive controller (which is connected on the second card. The 25pin connector on the back on its own is the connection for the FD1000), and the second (the one with the ceramic speaker and keyboard connection) is the main system CPU. I have never seen that small card at 11:50! As far as I am aware, there are about 5 or 6 known systems in the community, at least when I was snooping around a bit in 2018 and 2019. One guy managed to boot his up with a gotek, using 770 software, I believe. There is no known software for this system. I'd be happy to discuss the disk images I have, but I am cautious because of the sensitive data they contain.
Look forward to the next video - I picked up a pair of these with a pair of FD1000 today. About to start the cleaning and commissioning process myself.
The core of the system, the ti990 was the basis for the initial system from Triad systems a supplier of pos terminals for auto parts stores. The triad system supported multi users, hard drives (14inch), and commercial tape drives.
Hi, Barry, do you have any documentation or links? I know Triad used TI printers, but to my understanding they used an Interdata 32-bit mini, not a 990. We looked at a Triad system for the stores I was working at, but went with an Altos 3086 Xenix setup instead. I do recall a vertical integrator also who did show us a TI system, a BS300 with multiple terminals. If Triad did sell a 990-based system, I'd sure like to see more about it.
That thumbnail is pure 70s nerd porn! You should be working on it while wearing bell bottoms, listening to Bee Gees and drinking a Tab. Seriously though, it would be awsome to see it power up and boot.
What a beautiful machine. I guess the two CPUs are one do the terminal section and the other for the computer itself. Back then it was not unusual to merge the two devices. I’ll be looking for the power on👍
Random thought on the D/DT thing; the T may stand for "Terminator", the drive you put last needs to have a termination resistor to tell the controller card it is the last drive, as most cards could accept up to 4 drives back then.
That is an interesting thought! I've got an 'international' version of the FD1000, and it has two DT/8 drives in it, both without termination on the drive. I presume the termination is done, somehow, on a separate controller and PSU board in the unit. Anyway, the unit in VG's video is the US model, and seems to have a much simpler internal circuit, so yeah maybe one drive does have termination enabled at the factory and the other doesn't. I've also heard these drives called 'Datatrack 8', so D and T and 8. Perhaps the position of the slash determined factory placement of termination? Seriously, this whole system is a really deep dive into 70s TI...!
Intelligent Terminal sounds like its related to when DataPoint contracted Intel and Ti to try to make an integrated chip to replace their tty based smart terminals. Datapoint rejected their solutions and Intel turned theirs into the 8008 processor and eventually 8086. Could this be Texas Instruments grand child of that system?
Dude, please don't even mention the "F" show. Too many irreplaceable terminals and computers are being ruined already by the keyboard ghouls. Let's not indulge the latest topical fad as well. Think, man, think! 🙂 I'm working on a 990/1 here. Had to replace the VDU, and the power supply regulators all had leaky electrolytics. These are pretty much unobtanium 4-lead coaxial parts. I lucked out and got some NOS spare boards from another collector in Texas, though. These caps are very good at noise rejection and were favored by audiophiles up into the last decade, I'm told, but it appears no one is making them anymore. Anyone knows a source, though, please chime in. As Jim Hearne says, yes, the boards in the logic section are color-keyed to the slots. The front 9900 board is the disk controller board. The rearmost 9900 is on the actual CPU board. The disk bootloader ROM is on the RAM card. On the 770, 771, and 915, I believe, iirc, (need to double check) a different ROM is used. Those machines do not boot from disk, and the removable bezels were where the tape transports were installed on the 770. The 771 used the FD800 for storage. The central print mech was in fact was still an option on the 990/1. I have yet to see one with the print mech and controller board installed, though. I'll be putting up more docs soon on these systems, but there is a lot on bitsavers.org already, for instance under www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/990/ds990/. (Some of the docs there refer to the big minicomputers, so careful.) There is disk software on bitsavers and elsewhere. I can get more into that later, and will have some comments and files up my cloud hosting site soon. Nice save, though. Looks like mostly cosmetic damage from the fire. Take a lot of cleaning, obviously.
I find these "narrated slideshow tour" videos frustrating. Actually WORK on a part of it, test a component, check continuity, at least CLEAN it. I guess it's ok to just do a simple tour as Part 1 of a video series, but just saying "look what I got, I'll get to it eventually" is quite unsatisfying.
This system needs it's own postcode. What a unit!
I've got a working DS990/1 , mine is actually a TI model 915 terminal but i upgraded it with the boards from a DS990/1
The 2 removal panels were for a dual tape drive option, the centre panel is for a printer option.
Strangely enough i'm missing one of the panels as well.
I don't have the drives for mine but it is working with a Gotek.
The 3 DB 25 ports are 2 serial ports and the 3rd one is an optional serial port which needs an extra card inside (which looks like yours has)
The cards should go in specific slots, they are colour coded with dots on the cage.
The front processor board is part of the floppy drive controller, the board behind that is the data separator for the floppy drive.
I've not seen the small card at the back before, mine hasn't got it and neither has any others i've seen inside of, would be interesting to see more of that card.
Yes, you do need a disk to get it to do pretty much anything, without a disk to boot from you will just get an error code in the corner of the screen and nothing will work.
There are a small group of us on Atariage with DS990/1 and other related TI990 systems. I have a TI990/5 and TI990/10A as well
forums.atariage.com/forum/345-tomy-tutor-cc40-992-998-cortex-990-mini/
There is also sometimes discussion on forum.vcfed.org/index.php?forums/texas-instruments.65/
Cool. The design reminds me of those old computers seen in bowling alley lanes back in the day ;)
My hunch is the second processor would be primarily for the floppies since the system pre-dates LSI floppy controller chips. Handling sector buffers, CRC calculations, etc, requires a fair bit of processing support. TI did offer a TMS9909 (I think) floppy controller in the early 1980s but I never saw one on a board.
Just found your channel, and this takes me back to 1990. My first real job out of high school had me repairing the monitor portion of these TI terminals. I think the 931 was the bulk of this type and the 935 that you could find in O'Reilly Auto Parts 20 years later. Governmental institutions were stuck on this hardware long after its EOL and paid through the nose to keep it running. One of the daughterboards in the terminal had a JBS sticker on it; they were our main competitor in Houston. Get a TI 810 printer for it and go to town.
I THINK these might have been geared more towards being a 'roll your own' cash register for pretty much anything/anyone with an existing UPC system that didn't want to shell out exorbitant fees for their proprietary POS terminals. There weren't all that many off the shelf options that could do that with other POS backends, but TI was definitely a player.. That whole issue was pretty much obsoleted by IBM overnight and a LOT of smart terminals like these that no one's heard of went away as fast as they appeared.
Well, that brings me back! I used those back in the late 1980s when I worked with Geophysical Service Inc (GSI), which was then a division of Texas Instruments (despite GSI having being the company that actually founded TI) There were two models of that terminal: one with fixed keyboard (used with the TI-CMS, or "Configurable Marine System"), and one where the keyboard could be detached (used with the TI-TSR, or Trace Sequential Recorder). I'm not aware that any info now exists on those systems.
We hooked these terminals into TI-990B mini computers which were so truly terrible in their quality of construction, that even sneezing near one could actually cause the system to freeze. The 990s were populated with massive, super-flexible, PCBs (some of which were wire-wrapped)m and which, if dropped or subjected to shock, would eject half of the socketed ICs all over the floor. As we were using these on a ship in the North Sea, this was less than ideal. As I remember, we also use the dual disc pack you have as a boot controller for the overall system.
I remember being told that GSI was one of the biggest users of this hardware, although who knows. Given how terrible it was (compared to HP or IBM) I couldn't imagine anyone else investing in it! Certainly we felt like had drawn the short straw in having to work with it..
Oh, and the central section of the terminal was used for built-in printer.
One possible place to find info and photos of this hardware is Facebook. So here a picture of the terminal as being used by a land seismic crew in Canada.
facebook.com/photo/?fbid=449792427443521&set=a.2885252701518589
Thanks for the info and the link! I know GSI used a lot of 980s, was not sure about 990s. Not familiar with a 990B. BTW, as that TSR terminal possibly a model 914? Be nice to find more info on the CMS and TSR, anyway.
I used to work for your main competitor in Houston, Texas Geophysical!
Love the look of those old terminals!
Holy vintage computer designs Batman; this one looks like TI 99 4A's bigger brother
I read somewhere that the DS990 Model 1 was used in some way in the design of the TI-99!
I like to think the DS990 Model 1 is the Commodore PET to the TI-99
@@orinokonx01 990/10, but the 990/1 could have been used with it using 911 VDT emulation
If I remember correctly, I once saw a photograph or ad of this machine, and it immediately looked to me as if it was meant as a rival to the HP 9845 workstation, which looked *very* similar if you only see the whole machine. Of course the 9845 played in a totally different league, but the integral design with expansion areas for two tape drives and a thermal printer in the middle strongly reminded me to the HP 9845, which was, of course, much more capable (and expensive) than this TI jewel.
Lookingmforward to a video when you get the thing booted and ready for operations. That will be fun.
my favorite thing is obscure computers and consoles....I love it❤....
love the widescreen aspect ratio of some of these old terminals
I'm sure, this thing sat in the office of the boss and not for the boss but as the boss 😊
That reminds me of the main terminals / computers in Impossible Mission.
I’ve only ever seen a TI DS990 in a rack at a medical lab just as pictured in that brochure.
Interesting how that display does have a cool retrofuturistic design... that on the other hand could be (anachronistically) described as a regular 4:3 screen framed by a chunky "widescreen" bezel. Except of course widescreen was a thing only at cinema theatres, not computer monitors.
there were a few 8 bit micros that used dual processors one for main data , the other for IO steering
Just started watching, and before I continue, I have to say I am very excited to watch this video..!
I have a DS990 Model 1, sitting right next to me, with matching FD1000 drive about a meter further. I can't get the dang thing to work, I think it has a reset issue, and the drives are in rough shape.
I also have software. I think. On disks that have track damage. I've imaged them, but I don't have anything useful from what I can see.
I've been meaning to get back into that project, but have a backlog of other things to do first... life!
Anyway, back to the video!
Edits:
The inset you mention at 7:12 is actually where an optional (thermal?) printer could be installed. At least, in the TI Model 770 series, which the DS990 Model 1 shares its chassis. In fact, there was an official upgrade kit that TI sold for the Model 770 series that 'upgraded' it to a DS990 Model 1! Optional to the upgrade was to get the FD1000, since the 771 (I think) had a FD800.
And just in case you mention them, the two panels either side was for the tape drives that the 770's used. Yep! Just as I unpaused!
Ok at 11:20, the first 990 is for the floppy drive controller (which is connected on the second card. The 25pin connector on the back on its own is the connection for the FD1000), and the second (the one with the ceramic speaker and keyboard connection) is the main system CPU.
I have never seen that small card at 11:50!
As far as I am aware, there are about 5 or 6 known systems in the community, at least when I was snooping around a bit in 2018 and 2019. One guy managed to boot his up with a gotek, using 770 software, I believe. There is no known software for this system. I'd be happy to discuss the disk images I have, but I am cautious because of the sensitive data they contain.
Look forward to the next video - I picked up a pair of these with a pair of FD1000 today. About to start the cleaning and commissioning process myself.
That’s awesome! Please let us know what you find when you try to power them up!
The core of the system, the ti990 was the basis for the initial system from Triad systems a supplier of pos terminals for auto parts stores. The triad system supported multi users, hard drives (14inch), and commercial tape drives.
Hi, Barry, do you have any documentation or links? I know Triad used TI printers, but to my understanding they used an Interdata 32-bit mini, not a 990. We looked at a Triad system for the stores I was working at, but went with an Altos 3086 Xenix setup instead. I do recall a vertical integrator also who did show us a TI system, a BS300 with multiple terminals. If Triad did sell a 990-based system, I'd sure like to see more about it.
That thumbnail is pure 70s nerd porn! You should be working on it while wearing bell bottoms, listening to Bee Gees and drinking a Tab. Seriously though, it would be awsome to see it power up and boot.
Wow, what a weird keyboard layout!
The removeable panel was a sandwich/cigarette pack holder.
PC coffee cup holders were not invented yet...
A cigarette pack holder was essential back when this came out.
@@belstar1128 It's probably very likely that you were required to smoke, in order to operate this terminal.
It looks like it was intended to compete with the IBM 5110 desktop computer. The specs (memory, dual eight inch disk drives) are similar.
What a beautiful machine. I guess the two CPUs are one do the terminal section and the other for the computer itself. Back then it was not unusual to merge the two devices. I’ll be looking for the power on👍
Random thought on the D/DT thing; the T may stand for "Terminator", the drive you put last needs to have a termination resistor to tell the controller card it is the last drive, as most cards could accept up to 4 drives back then.
That is an interesting thought!
I've got an 'international' version of the FD1000, and it has two DT/8 drives in it, both without termination on the drive. I presume the termination is done, somehow, on a separate controller and PSU board in the unit. Anyway, the unit in VG's video is the US model, and seems to have a much simpler internal circuit, so yeah maybe one drive does have termination enabled at the factory and the other doesn't. I've also heard these drives called 'Datatrack 8', so D and T and 8. Perhaps the position of the slash determined factory placement of termination?
Seriously, this whole system is a really deep dive into 70s TI...!
Needs more bezel!
DS stands for dirt saturated
Wondering if the second processor handles the serial i/o?
very nice 👍
Intelligent Terminal sounds like its related to when DataPoint contracted Intel and Ti to try to make an integrated chip to replace their tty based smart terminals. Datapoint rejected their solutions and Intel turned theirs into the 8008 processor and eventually 8086.
Could this be Texas Instruments grand child of that system?
The small card is likely a bus terminator.
Hasta la vista, transmission data errors!
The manuals I have assign slot 12 to an ACU
Someone help me please? 5:45 they are _ _ _ _ drives?
Dude, please don't even mention the "F" show. Too many irreplaceable terminals and computers are being ruined already by the keyboard ghouls. Let's not indulge the latest topical fad as well. Think, man, think! 🙂
I'm working on a 990/1 here. Had to replace the VDU, and the power supply regulators all had leaky electrolytics. These are pretty much unobtanium 4-lead coaxial parts. I lucked out and got some NOS spare boards from another collector in Texas, though. These caps are very good at noise rejection and were favored by audiophiles up into the last decade, I'm told, but it appears no one is making them anymore. Anyone knows a source, though, please chime in.
As Jim Hearne says, yes, the boards in the logic section are color-keyed to the slots. The front 9900 board is the disk controller board. The rearmost 9900 is on the actual CPU board. The disk bootloader ROM is on the RAM card. On the 770, 771, and 915, I believe, iirc, (need to double check) a different ROM is used. Those machines do not boot from disk, and the removable bezels were where the tape transports were installed on the 770. The 771 used the FD800 for storage. The central print mech was in fact was still an option on the 990/1. I have yet to see one with the print mech and controller board installed, though.
I'll be putting up more docs soon on these systems, but there is a lot on bitsavers.org already, for instance under www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/990/ds990/. (Some of the docs there refer to the big minicomputers, so careful.) There is disk software on bitsavers and elsewhere. I can get more into that later, and will have some comments and files up my cloud hosting site soon.
Nice save, though. Looks like mostly cosmetic damage from the fire. Take a lot of cleaning, obviously.
I find these "narrated slideshow tour" videos frustrating. Actually WORK on a part of it, test a component, check continuity, at least CLEAN it. I guess it's ok to just do a simple tour as Part 1 of a video series, but just saying "look what I got, I'll get to it eventually" is quite unsatisfying.
I think we had one of these on display when I worked at Target in the 80’s !!