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  • TI-99/4A

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Home Computer Weekly – Issue Number 15 – June 14-22, 1983



    I’m not sure what the popularity of the TI-99/4A in the U.K was (my guess is not very) but that is where the above ad is from. Here in the U.S., it had a very brief period of popularity. This ad appeared in the June 14-22, 1983 issue of Home Computer Weekly. By this time, Texas Instruments had pretty much already lost the price war with Commodore and the TI-99/4A would be officially discontinued the following year.

    The TI-99/4A was an early home computer designed by Texas Instruments. It was introduced in 1981 and competed with the Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, VIC-20 and later the Commodore 64. It was technically the first 16-bit personal computer (the processor was a TMS9900) but this provided limited benefits as the 16-bit processor was basically shoehorned into a system that had originally been designed for an 8-bit processor that TI failed to successfully produce. The TI-99/4A was superior to the VIC-20 in many ways but it could not compete on price. Commodore manufactured its own chips giving it a cost advantage. A little more than a year after the TI/99-4A was introduced, the Commodore 64 was released, which while arguably having a weaker CPU, had much better sound and graphics capabilities. The TI/99-4A did have a brief period of popularity and had up to a 35% market share for a short amount of time.

    Texas Instruments was one of several victims of the price wars initiated by Commodore and the TI/99-4A was discontinued in 1984. Their marketing strategy was pretty poor and having Bill Cosby as a spokesman could only help so much. To compete, their plan was to sell the hardware at a loss and then make up the loss by selling software and peripherals that had higher profit margins. Unfortunately, for this plan to work they had to monopolize these markets and they prevented third party development. This had the predictable result of limiting software and hardware availability and quality. Other home computers of the time, particularly the Commodore 64, VIC-20 and Apple II enjoyed significant third party support.

    While some of the games produced by TI were decent, there were too few and most were clones of more popular games. Application software did not fare much better. There were some interesting peripherals produced, including the voice synthesizer which many games supported.

    The above ad is from the June 14-22, 1983 issue of Home Computer Weekly.


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  • Rosetta Spacecraft Ends Mission With Dive Into Comet It Orbited

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment

    Rosetta, the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, is dead, setting down in a final embrace with its companion of the past two years.

    Radio signals from Rosetta flatlined at 7:19 a.m. Eastern after it did a soft belly-flop onto Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at a speed of two miles per hour, slower than the average walk.

    For the last few minutes, people at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, watched their computer screens mostly in silence, but with some nervous chatter. When the radio signals ceased, they applauded and hugged in a celebration that was part joyous, part somber.

    “This is it,” said Patrick Martin, the mission manager. “I can announce the full success of this historic descent of Rosetta toward 67P, and I declare the primary mission operations ended for Rosetta.”

    Before Rosetta went silent, it collected and sent back one last batch of data and images, including some very close-up shots of the comet’s surface.

    The last photograph was taken at a height of 167 feet and was blurry because the camera was designed for viewing from a distance, not close up.

    The spacecraft’s 12-year journey — it took a decade to get there — concluded with quite a few firsts, and quite a few fans.

    Comets are frozen remnants that hold secrets about the early solar system, and Rosetta was the first spacecraft to do more than just whiz by one. Comet 67P, which probably formed outside of Neptune, was one of the few with an orbit that could be matched by a spacecraft.

    Two years of observation have revealed a dormant comet coming to life as it neared the sun and heated up, shooting geysers of dust and gas off its surface. Scientists learned that its shape, resembling a rubber duck, most likely occurred when two comets bumped into each other at a low velocity and stuck together.

    Source: Rosetta Spacecraft Ends Mission With Dive Into Comet It Orbited – The New York Times



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  • Philae awakes: What next for probe after 7 month nap on comet?

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    What a wake-up call. On Saturday night, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne received 85 seconds of incredibly good news: a data chirp from the missing European Space Agency lander Philae. Despite seven months adrift and alone on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko since its bumpy landing last year, Philae is back and ready for science.

    “Philae is doing very well – it has an operating temperature of -35 °C and has 24 watts of power available,” said lander manager Stephan Ulamec. “The lander is ready for operations.” Here is what’s next:

    Philae has finally made contact, but only intermittently, so the first order of business is establishing a better link. The lander speaks to Earth via the orbiting Rosetta satellite, meaning communication is only possible during certain windows when the spacecraft is overheard.

    Philae only transmitted for a minute and a half out of a possible 2-hour window, meaning the link isn’t ideal, and the lander team heard nothing during a broadcast window on Sunday. Reorienting Rosetta should help, said ESA project scientist Matt Taylor.

    The mission team was able to download and analyse 300 data packets from Philae during its brief communication on Saturday, but they revealed that over 8000 more are sitting in the lander’s memory awaiting transmission. That suggests Philae has been operational recently but unable to transmit, so downloading this data will give the team clues about what the lander has experienced in the past few days.

    The researchers and engineers behind Philae have had months to prepare for the lander’s reawakening, and have been planning sequences of short commands that can be performed quickly without stressing its battery.

    Once communications are properly established, the team will upload the commands in the hope of gathering more scientific data about comet 67P. First on the list are the temperature and magnetic field readings, with the possibility of more images from the surface to come later.

    Source: Philae awakes: What next for probe after 7 month nap on comet? – New Scientist


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