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Old 2nd Feb 2019, 9:02 pm   #6
julie_m
Dekatron
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Derby, UK.
Posts: 7,735
Default Re: Texas Ti99/4a out of hibernation.

Yeah, I later read that there was something weird about the memory architecture on the TI machine. That's probably why programs ran slower than an incontinent three-legged dog in a lamp post showground. No wonder, if it's got to fit a line of BASIC plus the BASIC an processor stacks (the BASIC stack has details of FOR loops and RETURN addresses for GOSUBs on it, plus whatever is being involved in calculations being done) into 256 bytes. Presumably software on cartridge is mapped directly into the CPU's address space, so the full VDP RAM becomes available for bit mapped graphics?

In the UK, we probably were spoiled; our home computers were ready to go out-of-the-box, without having to fork out for extra hardware just to make it usable. Or maybe it's that we were too tight to buy upgrades, so manufacturers had to make the machines more than just good enough to begin with!
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