website/content/museum/bull-ttx-80-85-90.md

---
title: Bull TTX 80 / 85 / 90
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- France
years:
- '1980'
cpus:
- Intel 8080
params:
  name: TTX 80 / 85 / 90
  image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_system_s1.jpg
  company: /companies/bull
  company_name: Bull
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: TTX 80 / 85 / 90
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Bull
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: France
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1980'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: None
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: 88 keys with numeric keypad and text editing kjeys
  - label: CPU
    value: Intel 8080
  - label: SPEED
    value: Unknown
  - label: RAM
    value: 64, 96k, 128 or 256K depending on which cards was purchased
  - label: VRAM
    value: Unknown
  - label: ROM
    value: 2 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: Unknown
  - label: COLORS
    value: Monochrome
  - label: SOUND
    value: Built-in speaker
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Printer, Serial
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: Dual 8'' floppy-disk drive , single sided single density
  - label: OS
    value: proprietary OS, CP/M 2.2
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in switching power supply unit
  - label: PERIPHERALS
    value: Hard disks, storage server
  - label: PRICE
    value: At least 15,000
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  forum_thread: 967
  photos:
  - title: TTX 80
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx80_1.jpg
  - title: TTX 90
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_system_s2.jpg
  - title: LEFT SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_leftside_s1.jpg
  - title: TOP VIEW
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_topview_s1.jpg
  - title: FLOPPY DRIVES CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_frontpanel_s1.jpg
  - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: The sturdy keyboard offered numerous editing keys as well as a numeric keypad.
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_keyboard_s1.jpg
  - title: REAR CONNECTORS
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** This lever allows to tilt the main unit forward\
      **(2)** Keyboard connector\
      **(3)** Serial port connector\
      **(4)** Printer connector
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_rearside_s1.jpg
  - title: ORIGINAL CPT MODEL
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_cptversion_s1.jpg
  - title: 'INSIDE #1'
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      **(1)** The large switching power supply unit occupies all the low part of the case\
      **(2)** The logic area is fitted with 4 cards, from right to left:\
      • 8080 CPU card,\
      • 128 KB RAM card,\
      • FDD controller card,\
      • I/O card.
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_inside_s1.jpg
  - title: 'INSIDE #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: Complete system with the video CRT mounted vertically.
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_inside_s2.jpg
  - title: 8080 CPU CARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_cpucard_s1.jpg
  - title: 128K RAM CARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: The card is fitted with 64 x 4116 chips (16K x 1 bit). The new 4164 chips (64K x 1 bit) were not cheap enough to be used at the time. 16 of them would have been enough.
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_ramcard_s1.jpg
  - title: TANDON FDD
    subtitle: ''
    text: Tandon slim size 8" floppy disk drives
    image: /media/museum/photos/bull_ttx90_fddrive_s1.jpg
  adverts:
  - title: TTX 80 FRENCH ADVERT (JAN. 1982)
    subtitle: ''
    text: '"computing against wasted time"'
    image: /media/museum/pubs/bull_ttx80_pub_time.jpg
  oc_id: 993
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230401012934/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=993
    date: '2023-04-01'
---

In January 1979, Bull signed an Agreement with **CPT corporation**, a company based in Minnesota, USA, for the distribution of word processing equipment by Bull. Three 8000 series systems were bought from CPT and sold under the Bull label, the **TTX-80**, **TTX-85** and **TTX-90**.

These massive systems featured an Intel 8080 processor, 64 to 256 KB of RAM, a dual 8" floppy drive and above, a portrait monitor that could display a full page of A4. They were connected to a dedicated daisywheel printer and a 300-baud modem.

They could be connected to a 61 DPS/2 Bull Computer through the "Burothèque" software, allowing the documents to be sorted, archived or read directly from TTX system. The 61 DPS/2 then acts as a document server.

The TTX-90 was the last machine bought by Bull. Because of the very high prices of the CPT systems (at least 15,000 Euros), they finally produced their own dedicated word processing system, the TTX-35.

The TTX systems ran a very unique multitasking interrupt driven OS, able to save and retreive instantly a full A4 page of formatted text. However CPT did eventually offer standard CP/M 2.2 as alternate OS, though they did not call it CP/M.

Due to its high price level, the TTX systems did not meet a large success, except in Bull offices and some French public services.

---

More information from **Jay Craswell**:\
There was an external hard drive available that was a 8" 30 Meg. (or was it 16"?) huge box called Wordpack and a little drive that held a 5/14 full height 5 Megabyte and later 10 Megabyte drive. There was also a Star Hub type server called the SRS45 which was a storage unit for multiple CPT computers.

**Thomas Cook** specifies:\
CPT Corporation started in 1971 In St. Louis Park, Minnesota, moved to Hopkins in 1974 then to Eden Praire in 1978. In 1981 they opened a seperate manufacturing facility in Channessan.\
They also offered 24 pin dot matrix printers and a 300dpi laser printer.\
Their first external hard drive was an external 14" 5Mb hard drive. The box was optioned for up to 3 drives. After that they came out with a 5 1/4" MFM-SCSI drives starting at 5MB and topping out at 30MB.