Technico SS-16?
 On Sunday, January 30, 2000 at 2:00:00 AM UTC-6, Robert Monaghan wrote:
> AKA Technico Turkey, ads showed a geeky guy with 2 models (female) on either
> side, each biting his ear, saying "2 bites are better than one" ;-)
> >
> had one for a while; as I had a TI980 minicomputer; extra memory boards via TI
> surplus; the computer died a well deserved death; reportedly per the Technico
> folks at a conference, they made a great deal with Texas Instruments for the
> hardware, got it up and running, being hardware guys, then when they went to
> license the TI 980/990 minicomputer software, the software division of Texas
> Instruments asked for a basic $10,000 US software licensing fee for each
> computer plus blah blah blah. So they had a box and nothing to run on it,
> unless you had a minicomputer, in which case, their box was superfluous.
> ANother great example of the left hand not knowing or caring what the right
> hand was doing. Basic machine monitor; enter programs hand assembled, very
> pricey for its limited capabilities, hence, it died a well deserved death. Big
> corporations. Bah!
> >
> I still have a full set of the original documentation in storage, but the
> hardware went with my minicomputer when my grad student budget said sell to
> buy a usable 6800 system....
> >
> grins bobm -- * Robert Monaghan POB752182 Dallas Tx 75275-2182

Mr. Monaghan,

Sir you are "full-0f-it." Technico had nothing to due with TI and the 980 or 990
minicomputers. I was with TI and invented the Technico SS-16 hobby computer kit.
I got a release from TI to market this product long before TI had a 9900
microprocessor system. Technico NEVER sold anything back to TI. Technico was a
components distributor like Arrow, Milgray and others at that time. I used this
system to help engineers learn how to develop systems utilizing a micro. I hired
Terry Dolhoff to write the "line-at-a-time" assembler and the 1st Basic software
with extensions that operated out of an EPROM for a microprocessor based system
that were the "key" software learning elements used by the SS-16. This little
board was so successful that Littion used it to develop the 1st Nuclear Power
Plant prototype. Now if you want to "understand" why the 990 or 9900 micro was
not successful it was because of the CRO I/O. This was a serial I/O and not the
8 bit wide or 16 bit wide data bus. It was great for tuning on a light but not
to great for trying to process a lot of data.

Bob Stevenson