TI-74 TI-95 8x32K banked RAM/FLASH cart soon, ROM images needed

[Jeff_Birt]

Note that TIFF/TIFF2 has some 'extension' programs included that add the ability to PEEK and POKE into memory. This allows dumping and writing to all 32K of the cart memory. There is still a lot to explore with this method.

[rprosperi]

(10-15-2024 12:28 PM)Jeff_Birt Wrote:  

(10-15-2024 06:19 AM)brouhaha Wrote:  For the TI-74, there might not have been an "SDK", but there was definitely software developer documentation on the internals, which was hundreds of pages, and much more comprehensive than the "TI-74 BASICALC Technical Data Manual" which can be found online. A friend worked at a company that developed their own software for the TI-74, and programmed their own EPROM modules. Years ago my friend gave me his copy of that documentation, but unfortunately I no longer have it.

I have no idea whether there was any comparable internals documentation for developers for the TI-95.

This perhaps: https://www.scribd.com/document/34233052...manual-pdf

I hate paywalls for effectively PD materials and won't play their game by giving them more bait. If anyone has this and can share it from a free source, please do. NOT A PRIORITY

[Jeff_Birt]

(10-15-2024 09:31 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  I hate paywalls for effectively PD materials and won't play their game by giving them more bait. If anyone has this and can share it from a free source, please do. NOT A PRIORITY

I do have the PDF, don't remember where I got it. Was going to upload it to archive.org but they are still down. Just posted the link above to see if that was the document @brouhaha was talking about. Sorry, should have made that clear.

[Gene]

https://www.progettosnaps.net/manuals/pdf/ti74.pdf

Also be sure to check out the TI-95 rom dumps on rskey.org

[badacktor]

these listings! https://rskey.org/CMS/the-library/?view=article&id=13

bonus: https://airy.rskey.org/CALCDOCS//TI/TI95math.pdf

bonus bonus: hrastprogrammer's emulator has rom images I believe http://ti58c.phweb.me/site/articles.php?...he%20TI-95

[Jeff_Birt]

Thanks for the links guys!

Had a bit of a snafu with the connector last evening. I sent enclosures to the other two guys with the new RAM/FLASH carts and one guy could not get the boards to function when in the case. We tracked that down late last night to the new connector being not as deep internally and having more of a shallow slope to the contact pins than the original.

The machine PCB has a ~2mm blank edge around the card edge. When combined with the new connector pin shape this was not letting the connector pins make good contact with the PCB. On my TI-95 the RAM cart was iffy with no enclosure but worked fine with/without enclosure in the TI-74. A bit of variability in the machine PCBs.

I was able to reform the top row of pins, carefully, to more of a bull nose like the original connector and this seems to have done the trick. We'll do a lot more testing to see how robust this solution is. Given the slim pickings in 0.050" pitch card edge connectors, and ones that are small enough to fit this application we may need to stick with this connector and manually adjust the top row pins on each one.

[dmh]

Hi Jeff,

Will you be able to have 74 and 95 ROMs flashed on the same module and as long as you select the correct one before installing in the calculator it will work in both?

[Jeff_Birt]

(10-16-2024 11:43 PM)dmh Wrote:  Hi Jeff,

Will you be able to have 74 and 95 ROMs flashed on the same module and as long as you select the correct one before installing in the calculator it will work in both?

Yes, you can have all ROMs on one module. We plan on having the FLASH preloaded with all the ROMs from TI.

[toml_12953]

(10-17-2024 12:22 AM)Jeff_Birt Wrote:  

(10-16-2024 11:43 PM)dmh Wrote:  Hi Jeff,

Will you be able to have 74 and 95 ROMs flashed on the same module and as long as you select the correct one before installing in the calculator it will work in both?

Yes, you can have all ROMs on one module. We plan on having the FLASH preloaded with all the ROMs from TI.

How about RAM? Will all 32K be visible from TI-74 BASIC? I know the TI-95 can see all 32K of TI's 32K module if you load a tiny machine language routine.

[molleraj]

Hi Jeff_Birt! This is super exciting! I'm definitely interested in one. I have a tape interface replacement for the TI-95 (https://github.com/molleraj/ti95interface) that might be able to help extract contents of ROMs and dump them as tape files. I'm also on working on converting tape files to binary files that contain the rearranged bytes of the original saved calculator file. I know I have the Mathematics ROM and I may have the Statistics ROM cartridge as well.

On another note, do you think it would be possible to save keystroke programs into part of the flash memory?

[brouhaha]

(10-16-2024 02:14 AM)Gene Wrote:  https://www.progettosnaps.net/manuals/pdf/ti74.pdf

No, that's the short hardware manual. The one I used to have was a very long software manual.

[brouhaha]

I spoke to another friend who formerly worked for the same company. He actually was the one who signed up for TI's developer program back in the day, in order to get the internals documentation. He says that it was not hard to join the program and get the docs back then. He's going to attempt to get me another copy of the manual. It may take a while. If he succeeds, I'll share ir.

[badacktor]

I meant to write a longer reply yesterday, but got distracted etc etc.

So a few months back, I was reading through the TI PPC Notes Newsletter and on page 10 of the final issue (V14N5) was a notice from Robert Prins on the status of his utilities cartridge project for the TI-95. I've attached a copy of that page to this post. With the newsletter folding, and the tech world shifting away from programmable pocket calculators, it evidently seemed prudent to call it early and offer the programs and source, since producing a physical cartridge likely didn't seem worthwhile, if possible at all.

Intrigued, I found his email and sent him a message asking if he was still in possession of those resources. And he replied with a "yes"! Unfortunately, he also seemed to get distracted, and I never did end up receiving much, although he did recommend I look up the TMS7000 datasheets from TI, which are at bitsavers: https://bitsavers.org/components/ti/TMS7000/

I'm cripplingly terrified of seeming impolite or burdensome, so I've not yet tried following up again. We're all quirky in our own ways, perhaps? If anyone would like to try to succeed where I failed, you can message me for his email address.

PS: The plot thickens a bit regarding hrastprogrammer's TI-95 emulator and its associated files. The zip file containing the images of the cartridge ROMs has one file named PRINS.car that appears for all the world to be his utility cartridge. Though I'm at a loss what most of the routines are or what their parameters are, etc.

PPS: It probably goes without saying that I'm also really interested in this project. I can't contribute much expertise, but I'd really like to be counted as a prospective purchaser of the final products. Good luck with everything!

[Jeff_Birt]

(10-17-2024 02:06 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  How about RAM? Will all 32K be visible from TI-74 BASIC? I know the TI-95 can see all 32K of TI's 32K module if you load a tiny machine language routine.

For the TI-95 you just need to poke two values into RAM (in the cart) that sets the size of the cart. This only takes a few minutes and would need to be done to each 32K bank. The TI-95 also has a sort of rudimentary file system letting you name a cart and save named programs to it.

For the TI-74 is can only see an 8K of RAM on the cart. The TI-74S can see all 32K. They can both see all 32K of ROM. The only difference between the two is the system ROM. The TI-74 can use the RAM cart as additional program RAM, 8K internal + 8K from the cart. The only way to save such a program is to an external device. You can also use the RAM cart as a crude RAM drive by swapping programs between cart and system RAM. You are limited to 8K programs with this option, but you can have 8 banks of 8K programs at your disposal.

I will experiment with loading the ROM images onto a RAM cart and then setting the write protect DIP sw. This should convince the machine that it is a ROM.

[Jeff_Birt]

(10-17-2024 07:11 AM)brouhaha Wrote:  I spoke to another friend who formerly worked for the same company. He actually was the one who signed up for TI's developer program back in the day, in orderbto get the internals documentation. He says thatnit was not hard to join the program and get the docs back then. He's going to attempt to get me another copy of the manual. It may take a while. If he succeeds, I'll share ir.

That great, thanks!

[Jeff_Birt]

(10-17-2024 05:19 AM)molleraj Wrote:  Hi Jeff_Birt! This is super exciting! I'm definitely interested in one. I have a tape interface replacement for the TI-95 (https://github.com/molleraj/ti95interface) that might be able to help extract contents of ROMs and dump them as tape files. I'm also on working on converting tape files to binary files that contain the rearranged bytes of the original saved calculator file. I know I have the Mathematics ROM and I may have the Statistics ROM cartridge as well.

On another note, do you think it would be possible to save keystroke programs into part of the flash memory?

When my friend and I did the new serial interface for the Sharp PC-1500 he made a sort of PC-1500 emulator from a Teensy. It is great for debugging with real hardware. He made an adapter PCB for this contraption that allows plugging in the TI carts and reading/programming them. Hopefully the missing carts should arrive in the mail tomorrow so I can dump them this weekend.

[molleraj]

(10-17-2024 12:38 PM)Jeff_Birt Wrote:  When my friend and I did the new serial interface for the Sharp PC-1500 he made a sort of PC-1500 emulator from a Teensy. It is great for debugging with real hardware. He made an adapter PCB for this contraption that allows plugging in the TI carts and reading/programming them. Hopefully the missing carts should arrive in the mail tomorrow so I can dump them this weekend.

Ok, sweet! That sounds like the perfect tool then!

I'm also thinking about implementing a very simple (TTL) serial terminal emulator in TMS7000 machine code and or keystrokes. I wonder if someone has already developed one - probably there is a terminal emulator for the CC-40.

[prino]

OK, I'm not going to reply to all of the above, but I'm the Robert Prins that's mentioned. and if anyone wants to contact me off forum, the email address to use is robert.ah.prins @ that email from Google.

Anyway, the "TI-95 Utilities Cartridge" software is available, together with all the tools that were needed to assemble and link the code, and to enter the lot into a TI-95, either manually with some small programs I knocked up, or via the PC Interface. I'm currently doing a bit of work on them, basically slapping a GPL V3 licence on them, although I'm (reluctantly) open to suggestions, in, if that's allowed, this thread, for other open source licences.

Edited: Too late, just looked at the sources they are already GPL V3'ed!

I've also emailed my TI contact, who might still have sources for code in the TI SDS-74 development system (which I still have) for routines that came as object-only - my self-written TMS7000 disassembler is pretty simplistic, and can only handle a text file with one XX hexcode per line. He didn't believe there were ever TI IUO cartridges for either machine, but in a grey past he sent me updated TI-95 ROM code, to iron out some bugs in the first version, I'll see if I can find what they changed. For what it's worth, HrastProgrammer's TI-95E nowadays has the ROM images included in the EXE, but his archive lacks the Chem module.

I'm also the lucky owner of an EEPROM cartridge that can be reprogrammed, it actually has a power connector, and came with, I think, and cannot check this now, as I've just hitched from Vilnius where all my stuff is, to Oostende, all three TI modules in addition to my "UC".

And there is some programming stuff on my site, in a grey past I've painstakingly OCR'ed all issues of 52-Notes, you can find them @ https://prino.neocities.org/calculators/...index.html, and for those interested in hitchhiking, few I assume, add "indezzy.html" after the URL in the signature, and you can see what someone with too much time has done to some old Pascal programs and a compiler that doesn't support MMX, let alone AVX instructions.

[toml_12953]

(10-17-2024 12:34 PM)Jeff_Birt Wrote:  

(10-17-2024 02:06 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  How about RAM? Will all 32K be visible from TI-74 BASIC? I know the TI-95 can see all 32K of TI's 32K module if you load a tiny machine language routine.

For the TI-95 you just need to poke two values into RAM (in the cart) that sets the size of the cart. This only takes a few minutes and would need to be done to each 32K bank. The TI-95 also has a sort of rudimentary file system letting you name a cart and save named programs to it.

For the TI-74 is can only see an 8K of RAM on the cart. The TI-74S can see all 32K. They can both see all 32K of ROM. The only difference between the two is the system ROM. The TI-74 can use the RAM cart as additional program RAM, 8K internal + 8K from the cart. The only way to save such a program is to an external device. You can also use the RAM cart as a crude RAM drive by swapping programs between cart and system RAM. You are limited to 8K programs with this option, but you can have 8 banks of 8K programs at your disposal.

I will experiment with loading the ROM images onto a RAM cart and then setting the write protect DIP sw. This should convince the machine that it is a ROM.

When I had the TI 32K developer's cartridge, the 74 could see all 32K as BASIC program memory and added it to the 8K built in for a total of 40K. I didn't have the 74S (or at least it wasn't marked that way anywhere on the case).

[prino]

(10-18-2024 06:16 PM)toml_12953 Wrote:  When I had the TI 32K developer's cartridge, the 74 could see all 32K as BASIC program memory and added it to the 8K built in for a total of 40K. I didn't have the 74S (or at least it wasn't marked that way anywhere on the case).

I think there was a later revision of the TI-74 that could see 32K. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to have a three pixel-wide separator in Calc mode.