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website/content/museum/texas-instruments-ds990.md
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6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun.
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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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2026-10-12 07:55:22 +02:00

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---
title: Texas Instruments DS990
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1980'
cpus:
- TMS-9900
params:
name: DS990
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_system_s1.jpg
company: /companies/texas-instruments
company_name: Texas Instruments
specs:
- label: NAME
value: DS990
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Texas Instruments
- label: TYPE
value: Professional Computer
- label: ORIGIN
value: U.S.A.
- label: YEAR
value: '1980'
- label: END OF PRODUCTION
value: Unknown
- label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
value: None
- label: KEYBOARD
value: 88 key with numeric and arrow keypads, 10 function keys and 8 state led
- label: CPU
value: TMS-9900 (16-bit)
- label: SPEED
value: Unknown
- label: RAM
value: 64 KB
- label: ROM
value: 12 KB
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 80 columns x 24 lines
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: None
- label: COLORS
value: Monochrome
- label: SOUND
value: Beeper
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: 58.5 (W) x 58.5 (D) x 46.5 (H)
- label: I/O PORTS
value: 3 x serial, 1 FDD port
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: None
- label: OS
value: DX10, DNOS
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: Built-in modular switching PSU
- label: PERIPHERALS
value: TI extension cards
- label: PRICE
value: Unknown
tabs:
- photos
- hardware
photos:
- title: LARGER VIEW
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_system_s2.jpg
- title: TOP VIEW
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_topview_s1.jpg
- title: SIDE VIEW
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_rightside_s1.jpg
- title: REAR SIDE
subtitle: ''
text: Notice the three serial ports and the (blue) floppy disk unit connector.
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_rearside_s1.jpg
- title: KEYBOARD
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_keyboard_s1.jpg
- title: KEYBOARD DETAILS
subtitle: ''
text: Left and right keypads. Notice the 8 status leds.
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_keyboard_s2.jpg
- title: RUNNING
subtitle: ''
text: Main menu of the TI utilities disk.
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_bootscreen_s1.jpg
- title: COMPLETE SYSTEM
subtitle: ''
text: With a dual 8" floppy disk unit and a serial printer/terminal.
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_completesystem_s1.jpg
- title: 'INSIDE #1'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_inside_s2.jpg
- title: 'INSIDE #2'
subtitle: ''
text: |-
A large cooling fan separates the logic cards and the power supply unit.\
**(1)** Serial cards dedicated to video terminals or printers\
**(2)** CPU card\
**(3)** RAM card\
**(4)** Display card\
**(5)** Floppy disk controller cards\
**(6)** Modular switching PSU cards\
**(7)** The large fan is enclosed between the logic cards and the PSU
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_inside_s1.jpg
- title: 'INSIDE #3'
subtitle: ''
text: A single backplane supports the PSU cards (green slots) and the logic cards ((black slots).
image: /media/museum/photos/texasinstr_ds990_backplane_s1.jpg
hardware:
- title: INSIDE THE FD UNIT
subtitle: ''
text: 15 years of advances made in technology have elapsed between this massive dual 8" FD unit (about 30 kg) and a 100-gram 3.5" floppy drive which provides more than twice as much storage capacity.
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_fdunit_s1.jpg
- title: FLOPPY DISC DRIVES
subtitle: ''
text: |-
Both sides of the 8" Qume floppy disk drive.\
Some technical features:\
• 300 rounds per minute\
• 128 bytes per sector\
• 26 sectors per track\
• 77 tracks per diskette\
• 3328 bytes per track\
• 256,256 bytes per diskette
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_fddrives_s1.jpg
- title: OMNI 800 TERMINAL/PRINTER
subtitle: Model 820 RO (Read Only)
text: |-
Under the Omni 800 label, T.I. released numerous professional printers and terminals. Most of them acted as a remote input/output unit.\
This version has a covered operator control keypad, but other models featured a complete typewriter keyboard.
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_printer_s1.jpg
- title: OMNI 800 TERMINAL/PRINTER
subtitle: Model KSR
text: Thanks to its typewriter keyboard, this version was a true interactive terminal.
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_printer_s2.jpg
- title: 'CPU CARD #1'
subtitle: ''
text: Notice the beeper and the keyboard connector on the right-hand side.
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_cpucard_s1.jpg
- title: TMS-9900 PROCESSOR
subtitle: ''
text: A nice ceramic version of the 16-bit TMS-9900 CPU.
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_processor_s1.jpg
- title: 'RAM CARD #1'
subtitle: ''
text: 64 KB RAM card populated with 32 x 4116 RAM chips (16K x 1 bit).
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_ramcard_s1.jpg
- title: 'RAM CARD #2'
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/hardware/texasinstr_ds990_ramchips_s1.jpg
comments:
- author: John Sambrook (Kirkland, Washington, USA)
date: Monday 1st June 2020
text: |-
I have wonderful memories of working with TI DS/900 systems, including the /10 and the /12.
Someone asked about where to find materials. Here is one location$ I believe bitsavers.org has both manuals and binaries.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/990/dx10/
Hit me up if you''d like to discuss anything DS/990 related. I''d love to be able to buy some old TI gear.
- author: Jeffrey Brace (USA)
date: Wednesday 27th May 2020
text: I am looking for the TX5 operating system for this machine for a fellow member who lives in Italia. Specifically TI DS990 Model 1.
- author: John (Australia)
date: Monday 29th January 2018
text: |-
I have obtained a DS990 Model 1 and FD1000 dual disk drive assembly and currently restoring it as best as I can, after it sat in someones shed for many many years. I do not have any original disks, nor any physical documentation.
Seems like this machine is overshadowed by the other 990/\* systems, along with the 99/4A. I can hardly find software specifically for this machine. Even then, I''m not 100$ sure how to get the disk images onto the 8" floppy disks this machine reads. I am hoping that once I finish cleaning the dual Qume drives, I''ll be able to build up a PC interface and use some fancy utility to read and write disk images accordingly. Who knows if that is even possible...
- author: Ross Milbourne (England)
date: Thursday 4th January 2018
text: Please can anyone help me to locate any of the software for this machine? I have a DS990 Model 1 with FD1000.
- author: Keith Winterburn (USA)
date: Monday 24th September 2007
text: I used to look after our own and our customers systems which were DS 990 12 and so on multiple terminals mostly with 96 meg phoenix drives some with remote clusters supporting 911vdt terminals largest system was 30 terminals on three sites mostly business systems with the occasional one used for a library or similar they wern't much bother except for disk crashes and the ksr printers which lost sync pulses and jammed whilst printing
oc_id: 1025
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230330025208/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1025
date: '2023-03-30'
---
This DS990/1 system was the basic model of the DS990 series which was also comprised of the **990/2**, **990/4**, **990/10** and **990/12** models. They were targeted as multi-user business systems, and ran the DX10 then the DNOS (Distributed Network Operating System) OS's.
The 990/1 was the only version including its own video display, although up to three serial dumb video terminals could be connected as well. Other versions had a separate main unit managing several terminals, mass storage and printers.
The core of the system was a true 16-bit microprocessor, the TMS-9900, also made by T.I., and mounted later in the first 16-bit home computer, the [TI-99/4](/museum/texas-instruments-ti-99-4a/). Apart from the dumb terminals, interface cards allowed to connect a serial printer and a single or dual 8" floppy disk unit.
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