Texas Instruments TI-99/4A - History

History

Initially, the TI-99/4A was reasonably successful, and it has been estimated that it had about 35% of the home computer market at its peak. However, TI quickly found itself engaged in a price war, particularly with Commodore International, and was forced to lower the computer's price in order to compete. By August 1982, the computer was still losing shelf space. TI offered a $100 rebate, which caused spokesman Bill Cosby to quip about how easy it was to sell a computer if you paid people $100 to buy one.

The TI-99/4A found itself selling for around the same price as the Commodore VIC-20, even though it was much more expensive to manufacture. Although Texas Instruments and Commodore each owned their own IC fabrication facilities, Commodore used theirs to create custom ICs to reduce the cost of their computers, while TI continued to use off the shelf components and making only relatively small revisions to their motherboards. Commodore also made other cost-cutting changes including using aluminized cardboard to build RF shields for some of their systems. Texas Instruments never followed suit, electing instead to continue to use the highest quality components and materials with the unfulfilled hope that the marketplace would recognize it.

In February 1983, TI lowered the price to $150 and was selling the computers at a loss. And in June 1983, TI released a redesigned beige cost-reduced version that it sold, also at a loss, for $99. TI lost $100 million in the second quarter of 1983 and $330 million in the third quarter. In October 1983, TI announced it was exiting the home computer business. The 99/4A became the first in a series of home computers to be 'orphaned' by their manufacturer over the next few years, along with the Coleco Adam, Mattel Aquarius, Timex Sinclair 1000 and IBM PCjr.

A total of 2.8 million units were shipped before the TI-99/4A was discontinued in March 1984.

The TI-99/4A was technologically a more advanced computer than the VIC-20, offering more memory and more advanced graphics capabilities that in many respects rivalled the Commodore 64. However, a number of elements of its design attracted criticism: All peripherals plugged directly into the right-hand side of the unit (unless the user purchased the expensive and heavy Peripheral Expansion Box), which caused the computer to not fit well on top of a desk if a user added many peripherals besides a tape drive and a printer. In addition, the 48-key keyboard layout didn't match that of a typewriter very closely, and there was (at the time) no option for an 80-column display. The keyboard and display limitations made it unpopular for word processing.

However, the 99/4A's biggest drawback was its limited software library. TI closely controlled both hardware and software production for the machine, which resulted in a software library of around 300 titles and few of the big-name hits available for other computers of its day. No official technical documentation was released until the "Editor/Assembler" assembly language development suite was released in 1981; no system schematics were ever released to the public until after TI had discontinued the computer. By contrast, the VIC-20's hardware and software development was completely open. Commodore even included schematics in the owner's manual and published a complete programmer's reference book series, allowing anyone to build hardware for the machine and write software that could reliably access the lowest levels of the computer's architecture. The VIC eventually had a software library of more than 700 titles.

The TI-99/4A maintained a cult following for years after its death in the marketplace, in part because of its eccentricities, and in part because TI had actively supported a network of user groups during the production of the machine. There is still some life: several of these user groups still exist with histories of first supporting a state-of-the-art machine, then die-hards discussing their obsolete machine, and now enjoying today's retro computing resurgence. In 2004 a Universal Serial Bus (USB) card and Advanced Technology Attachment controller for IDE hard disks for the PEB were released, and there is still an annual Chicago TI Fair where people congregate to celebrate the historic TI-99 family of computers. Third party devices such as expanded memory cards, improved floppy controllers, and hardware ramdisks are very stable and popular additions to the machine, although there are no current known sources for these devices. In the early 1980s, a Bulletin Board System (TIBBS), developed by Ralph Fowler of Marietta, GA, running on the 99/4A became very popular and brought many users together. Also, a number of emulators for the TI-99 exist today for PC-based systems.

There was also a portable sibling to the TI-99/4A. Dubbed the CC40 (Compact Computer 40), it was a battery-powered compact with an LCD display and a version of TI BASIC. It also pioneered TI's HexBUS interface, a high speed serial expansion port similar in concept to USB. The HexBUS peripherals were compatible with all members of the TI-99 family; CC40 cartridges were not.

In 1987, the "Turbo XT" was introduced by Triton. Though rare, it allowed a TI-99/4A and an IBM PC XT to share the same desktop space, though without sharing such things as memory or disk drives. Pictures of this unusual peripheral are available here. The Turbo XT had at least two serious failings - first, it extended the use of the TI's already marginal keyboard to the XT whereas the reverse would have probably been far more marketable; second, it did not allow the TI to share or use resources with the XT (custom BIOS might have allowed the XT to serve as ramdisk, diskette controller/drives and serial ports).

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