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UCSD Pascal and the P-Code Card for TI-99/4A: Put P-System Power in Your PEB
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 พ.ค. 2022
- UCSD Pascal and the p-System are the original disk operating system for TI-99/4A, with more to offer power users than TI BASIC ever could. This is my look at the P-Code Card and the p-System, and what they really uniquely bring to the TI-99.
Find an archive of all p-System Manuals here:
pixelpedant.com/UCSD_p_system...
And find a copy of Classic99 preconfigured to boot the p-System here:
pixelpedant.com/classic99-Pas...
And find a copy of P-Code Tool here:
pixelpedant.com/p-code-tool.zip
#ti994a #retrocomputing #pascal
Unfortunately I never even heard of Pascal back when I got my TI in 1983 . You know how it was back in those days, info was not so easy to come by. Picked up a few magazines here and there so I could type in a few programs. Once my step dad took me to the mall where they had a room set up with several 99ers and their machines. I did see a PEB, boy was that exciting! LOL. Funny I still remember how amazed I was to see it and also sad as I knew we could never afford it. The only reason I got the 99 in the first place was because of it being on clearance. Still I was able to purchase a local programmer's game called Sneaky Snake on cassette at that mall gathering. Eventually my mom did purchase my brother and me an Extended basic cart! With a lot of trial and error, the manual, and a few magazines I was able to make a few simple games. The next summer school break I was working hard on a space shooter game that was simple and ran slowly but was getting very close to finishing it. It took nearly all summer as I had no help but one day after coming home from baseball practice I noticed the extended basic cart was missing. In a panic I searched and searched my room. Eventually my brother came home that night and told me he sold it! I was devastated!! Never getting to finish my game and losing that cart hurt me and I stopped using my old TI.
I stumbled across your site a few months ago and it has helped heal really old wounds. Thank you for you content! You even inspired me to once again take up the old micro hobby. At first I naturally wanted a TI but unfortunately well you know it's a costly endeavor. Especially if you want a good set up like your six TI hardware upgrades I can't live without video. Unfortunately I had to retire early with health issues so I don't make the big bucks anymore. On a fixed income i just can not afford to get my dream TI machine.
However after much searching I decided to purchase TheC64maxi. I really like it and it offers so much but I must admit I still miss my old shiny 994A. I know I can emulate on my PC but yeah it's just not the same feeling. Maybe some day I'll be able to have one again, I wish the makers of TheC64 Maxi would also make a 994a! I do understand it to would be an emulator like THEC64Maxi but it's still way better than using my PC. Anyways I rambled way way to long but I really appreciate your videos. Keep up the excellent work!
UCSD Pascal was/is great, we used it on Apple II's in school in the 1980ies. 🙂
I recently bought a 99/4a. I had sold mine years and years ago, complete with PEB, disk card, memory card etc. etc. I so regret it now as I'm paying through the nose to get that all back! Thanks for this. Like others, I always wondered why I'd bother with the p-code card. Now I know lol
Yeah, as affordable as the TI-99 is when it comes to the basics, a fully stocked PEB still sets one back a fair bit. But glad to hear you're back in the game!
I had an Atari 800 and the Atari Exchange (an Atari collection of 3rd party software) had a UCSD Pascal. I bought it and tried to learn on my own but it was the first language outside Basic and 6502 code that I tired to use. A local junior college had a course in Pascal and I signed up for it. On the first day the professor said we could only use Pascal from IBM or Apple. The following week I asked him about using the Pascal I got from the Exchange but he said he didn't have time to figure out every non-standard Pascal on different machines. I told him the Atari Pascal port came directly from the UCSD Pascal and brought the manual. He looked the manual over (especially the intro that explains it was a direct port from UCSD Pascal) and said it was fine. It was slow to write and compile since it used two discs that had to be swapped all the time but I then got an Atari 130xl that had 128K ram. I used the extra ram to make a ram disc and copied disc 2 to it. Then I could compile very quickly because I didn't have to swap disks and the ram disc. And although it was P code, it ran a lot faster than Basic.
I used Pascal in college during the 80s, but as a newbie to ti, All is strange and different...but I like it!
Thanks as always
I never had a P-code card, but I always wanted to know all about it. You do such a great job with your review of TI stuff! I will download the files you have and give it a go. Thank you for everything you are contributing to the aging TI community.
I used Apple Pascal in high school to learn the language before I went off to college. I didn't even realize I was using a p-code-based operating system until I heard about what the p-System was recently. Though, I did notice the oddity of having to format disks specially for it.
This has been the Holy Grail of TI-99/4A things for me: finding a P Card for the PEB. Thanks a million for the P-System files, they'll carry me until that lucky day I get a PHP1270 🙂
Great Video!
Thanks! Remember using Pascal in college back in the 80s.
1979 was the best...great video..p system
UCSD p-system! Take that, Java!
I'm not a TI99 guy and you channel makes me wish I was. Please more Realms of Antiquity playthrough. Thanks for you efforts!
Man I was thinking about I kids days in the 80's and my first structured language was Pascal on a CP/M (8 bits) e I was messing around with Pascal again and doing research on Prof. Wirth's works with Ada, Modula and Oberon and was thinking about the positive points of those languages and they got a lot to offer actually.
Ada by the way has a approach to code security very peculiar in those RUST days, and was (and still is I guess at least because of maintenance) used a lot by the military.
I used UCSD on the Apple-II. TI PEB and floppy were unaffordable here in Europe. A cheap Apple clone with cheap halfheight floppies were so much less expensive that the Ti had no chance in competing.
yeah idk how my mom afforded a TI-99/4A MBX and a dozen games in 1985. We never had a PEB though.
Same here, Apple Pascal was a p-system. I recall Apple IIe's had something called a "language card" that it might've used as expanded memory. Though perhaps that was just for Integer Basic. I didn't realize until recently that it was an operating system that ran on its own VM. All I knew at the time was for some weird reason, I had to use a special disk format just to store programs from Apple Pascal. Now I know. Even the menu system was the same as on this TI UCSD system.
@@mmille10 The language card was pretty required for UCSD Pascal. The P-Code interpreter and some system routines lived in that area.
TIs system with PEB was far more expensive than an Apple ][ equivalent system here in the states as well.
I had the expansion box and the Pascal compiler.
We can run emulators all day long but they’ll never emulate that fantastic TI 99/4A clicky keyboard.
And the "airplane taking off" noise of the PEB!
I used p-system on a pdp-11 (and another workstation that we used for editing - the 8" floppies were compatible). Never used the TI-99/4A but have always been interested in it.
@Pixelpedant TIPI now supports P-Code IF you have the TIPI at 1100 CRU and no TI disk controller at that address. :) see the support forum on atari age for more info
Great Video!
I used the UCSD system often on my TI; possibly more than I used Basic. Also, thanks for the preconfigured Classic99-Pascal file! Real time saver.
Slight off-topic question: How did you get the GoTek to work with the PEB? I have one hanging around and think that's a great use for it.
I'm using a GoTek modded with the FlashFloppy firmware, which directly supports V9T9 format TI Disk images and use of an LCD display for file/directory navigation. I'm using it with a standard TI Disk Controller, so it's emulating an SSSD Shugart drive. If you've got a typical TI Disk Controller and floppy cable, you'll just need an adapter (or other compatible cable solution) to connect to the GoTek, since that doesn't use a card edge connector.
@@PixelPedant Thanks for this...time to go on a treasure hunt!
Oh man, I was waiting for this video!!!!! I learned Pascal on Highschool, so I was super interested in this P-system. Now after your video, I feel like I need one NOW! Thank you so much for the links!!
Question. What do you get as a compiled program? Something than can be run on a TI without P-system, or the programs, even compiled, are dependant on the P-system to run?
Compiled Pascal programs are dependent on the p-System virtual machine to run. Though notably, they are *not* dependent on the TI p-System specifically. Any pure Pascal p-System program should run on any other p-System IV implementation (e.g., Apple II and IBM PC) just as happily.
@@PixelPedant Thanks for the answer! Amazing video!
I am here
Hi many thanks for your excellent videos I seen a peb for sale in UK with 32k and interface card for 1000 usd. Realy looking forward to getting a box ASAP I wonder if it's possible to re manufacture a p system card this would be a project I would be interested in if I ever get a box here's hoping best wishes Alan uk
Off topic but I've been enjoying your videos and when a beige TI-99/4A came up for $10 on ebay I bought it. I'm in no rush but I'll need to convert the output to composite (do I mod the included adapter or buy something?), sounds like maybe fix the keyboard and then the power supply. I can test it and fake it but what's the TLDR of bringing one of these things up to snuff in 2022?
I'm not an enthusiast. We had an Atari 400 then 800 years after they came out and I honestly never did anything but play games. My brother was into "computing". He's a mechanical engineer and I'm a software dev.
I really enjoy your deep dives into the hardware and software solutions these strange machines had.
All NTSC TI-99s directly output Composite and mono analogue audio from the a/v jack. So you can make your own breakout cable by using the one from the RF adapter, or you can buy one online easily enough for $10 or $15. There are no upgrades or fixes that are *inherently* required for all units, but there's certainly a laundry list of upgrades which are the ones most people will want at some point. I covered those in this video on my top six here: th-cam.com/video/KONbXJnnzds/w-d-xo.html
The P-Code card is something I am actively looking for but cannot find one. 😞
And I hope that you find one! Just keep in mind the component issues described in the video, as a result of which any "untested" cards may require repair, before they will be functional. Here more than elsewhere, untested should be taken to mean non-functioning.
@@PixelPedant I can repair it. :-) I can wave a soldering iron like nobody's business. lol
I'm sure printing characters was slow in Assembly too. TI insisted on their own freaky CPU, which was much slower (or slowed down the machine much more) than the competition on release. Did they ever respond to criticism regarding this, or comment on why they decided to put this specific CPU in the machine?
The TI-99's use of the TMS9900 was really just the final outcome to a messy development process (not just for the system, but for its contingent technologies), which we only know a small part of the history of, as TI was relatively secretive. But my understanding is, the project which resulted in the 99/4 as we know it started out with quite different aims, and with an interest in utilising an 8-bit processor whose development was ultimately unsuccessful. In any case, the system's performance (mostly remarked upon with respect to its BASIC) is mostly not attributable to the 9900 per se and in isolation, but to a larger complex of factors which go in to slowing down its BASIC and are mostly attributable to memory limitations consequent to its development in the late 70s, at a time when memory was significantly more expensive than it would become.
It's a lot faster in assembly.. in fact compiled basic to assembly is amazingly fast.. I compiled the classic program Camelot from 99er magazine and it is so fast it's hard to see .. see the videos in my channel for some examples
@@PixelPedant I recently learned that they used the 16K video RAM for storing the BASIC program + variables! The video RAM can’t be addressed directly by the CPU so the CPU has to send commands to the video chip to read/write the RAM.
I am surprised the 99 wasn’t a lot slower than it actually was.