website/content/museum/myarc-geneve-9640.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
MYARC Geneve 9640	Computers	Home Computer	U.S.A.	1987	Texas Instruments TMS9995	name image logo company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts screenshots emulators links docs oc_id source Geneve 9640 /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_1.jpg /media/museum/logos/myarc_geneve_logo.gif /companies/myarc MYARC label value NAME Geneve 9640 label value MANUFACTURER Myarc label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1987 label value CPU Texas Instruments TMS9995 label value SPEED 12 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Texas InstrumentsTMS9938 (Yamaha V9938) 128K display + TMS9901 Interrupt Controller + MM58274 real-time clock label value RAM 512 KB 1-wait-state CPU RAM (expandable to 2mb) + 32 KB 0-wait-state CPU RAM (expandable to 64K) label value VRAM 128 KB VDP RAM label value TEXT MODES 80 columns label value GRAPHIC MODES 256 x 424 (256 colors), 512 x 424 (16 colors) label value COLORS 512 label value SOUND SN76496 sound processor label value I/O PORTS RGB & composit video ouput (8-pin DIN), mouse, joystick port, keyboard connector (IBM compatible) label value OS MDOS (very close to MS-DOS) label value PRICE Unknown photos adverts software emulators links docs 1176 title subtitle text image THE MYARC GENEVE “COMPUTER-ON-A-CARD”. This card would be inserted in the TI Peripheral Expansion System in slot one – the slot normally taken up by the Flex Interface Card (the “firehouse”) that connected to the 4A console. The 4A console was unused in the Geneve system. Any memory expansion cards that gave the TI its additional 32K of RAM had to be removed or altered, as they would interfere with the Geneve. RS232 and Disk Controller cards were generally compatible with the system. Thanks to Fabrice Montupet and his fabulous site [www.ti99.com](http://www.ti99.com) for this picture! /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_2.jpg title subtitle text image THE CARTRIDGE CLOSED /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_closed_1.jpg title subtitle text image ELECTRONIC BOARD Wonderful drawing of the Geneve mother board by Ron Reuter! Thanks to Ron Reuter and its website [www.mainbyte.com](http://www.mainbyte.com) for this picture. /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_mobo_1.jpg title subtitle text image ELECTRONIC BOARD - REAL PICTURE /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_mobo_3.jpg title subtitle text image ELECTRONIC BOARD EXPLAINED Thanks to Ron Reuter and its website www.mainbyte.com for this picture. /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_mobo_2.jpg title subtitle text image ELECTRONIC BOARD - DETAIL /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_mobo_detail_1.jpg title subtitle text image ELECTRONIC BOARD - DETAIL #2 /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_mobo_detail_2.jpg title subtitle text image CONNECTORS from left to right: - joystick\ - mouse\ - video /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_connectors.jpg title subtitle text image LOGO /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_logo_1.jpg title subtitle text image COMPUTER 99/8 It could be said that the never-released TI-99/8 was the predecessor to the Geneve. It shared the same processor and speed characteristics. However, it had a cartridge port (not 4A compatible) and featured the new TI Hex Bus interface – a simpler and cheaper way to daisy-chain peripherals vs. the Peripheral Expansion System. In many ways – such as the DOS, the graphics – the Geneve was a superior machine to this never-released successor to the 99/4A. Thanks to Fabrice Montupet and his fabulous site [www.ti99.com](http://www.ti99.com) for this picture! /media/museum/photos/myarc_geneve_3.jpg title subtitle text image OFFICIAL FLYER (RECTO) Thanks to [www.mainbyte.com](http://www.mainbyte.com) for this picture /media/museum/pubs/myarc_geneve_flyer_1.jpg title subtitle text image OFFICIAL FLYER (VERSO) Thanks to [www.mainbyte.com](http://www.mainbyte.com) for this picture /media/museum/pubs/myarc_geneve_flyer_2.jpg title subtitle text image ALTERNATIVE BOOT ROM screenshot Normally, the initial screen for the Geneve is a high-res image of a swimming swan (“the ugly duckling” being the TI-99/4A…get it?) However, a popular boot ROM let you hold down the space bar for a menu of devices from which to boot (floppy, hard drive, battery-backed RAM disk card, etc). The screen use 40-column graphics mode. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss1.png title subtitle text image INITIAL 80 COLUMNS SCREEN screenshot This is the initial (80-colum) screen that appears if the Genve’s built-in clock/calendar is unable to discern the current date and/or time. Later versions of MDOS are Y2K-compliant! If MDOS finds an AUTOEXEC file in the root of the boot volume, it will execute the commands within, just as MS-DOS does with AUTOEXEC.BAT files. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss7.png title subtitle text image MDOS screenshot Showing the MS-DOS similarities of MDOS, this is a sample DIR(ectory) command. Note that the hard drive is drive E:. This is because all disk controllers support at least three floppies, and the Myarc Hard and Floppy (HFDC) card supported 4. Thus, A through D were held in “reserve” making E: the first letter available for hard drives. Alternatively, you could refer to the hard drives as HDS1 and HDS2, and floppy drives as DSK1 through DSK4. MDOS accepts either a period or a backslash in path names. The use of either drive letters or device names and slashes or periods was a wise move to bridge the gap between TI users (device names and periods) and those familiar with MS-DOS. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss3.png title subtitle text image GEME SPLASH SCREEN sceenshot The splash screen (again in lower-res mode for some reason) for the Windowing program GEME. One of the many pieces of software that Myarc started but ultimately never finished, this was meant to be a quasi-GUI that would allow you to run multiple programs in windows on the screen – somewhat akin to GEM, Atari’s TOS, DOSshell, and similar programs. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss4.png title subtitle text image GLOBAL WAR GAME screenshot Not all programs had such boring displays. Here’s a game written in Myarc Advanced BASIC (ABASIC) that uses a high-res photo and line art for its splash screen (the remainder of the game is in 80-column text mode). /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss5.png title subtitle text image GPL INTERPRETER screenshot The GPL Interpreter allowed you to run cartridge-based software for the TI-99/4A that you previously saved to disk format with the CSAVE utility. The format of the resulting disk files is the same as that used by the TI accessory GRAM Kracker. Files saved on a TI with the “GK” will usually run fine out of the GPL Interpreter. GPL speed is set with the F4 key. A setting of 1 is TI (slow) speed, and is often the required speed for any TI games that use speech. The faster settings are ideal for programs like spreadsheets and word processors. The F6 option is unique…a lot of TI software expects to be in the first disk drive, DSK1. With DSK1 emulation “on”, you could create a subdirectory on your first hard drive called DSK1 and place files in it. The emulated GPL/TI mode would then see that directory as if it were the actual DSK1 floppy disk drive. CTRL SHIFT SHIFT would usually (but not always) take you out of the GPL environment and back to this loader screen. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss6.png title subtitle text image MY-WORD, WORDPROCESSING SOFTWARE screenshot The user interface for My-Word, the included word processing software. It is largely based on TI-Writer (which itself was largely based on text processing systems found on the TI 990 minicomputers) which was placed in the public domain by TI upon leaving the home computer market. The program uses dot commands for formatting very similar to what Wordstar did on the PC. For example, placing .C centers text while .B turns on bold face. Text files using such formatting must be run through a separate “Formatter” program (as shown in the menu bar) to “interpret” the dot commands into actual print. There is no WYSIWYG mode, although the later aborted Press program from Asgard Software was working on a graphical word processor for the TI and Geneve. A Help file is included. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss2.png title subtitle text image CONFIG YOUR AUTOEXEC screenshot In these days, programs just weren’t programs without having a windowing menu/interface. Here is Config Your Autoexec by Tim Tesch, which aids in the creation of AUTOEXEC files. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss8.png title subtitle text image DIRECTORY MANAGER screenshot In these days, programs just weren’t programs without having a windowing menu/interface. Here is Directory Manager by Clint Pulley, which is a nice directory/file manager program useful on the command-line oriented Geneve. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss9.png title subtitle text image MY-ART drawing sample #1 Here is a sample drawings from My-Art, the drawing program sold (or “included free” if you prefer) with the Myarc Mouse. It shows the graphics potential of the Geneve – certainly akin to the Ataris and Amigas being produced at the time (if not slightly better) and far exceeding the capabilities of PCs and Macs at the time. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss10.png title subtitle text image MY-ART drawing sample #2 Here is a sample drawings from My-Art, the drawing program sold (or “included free” if you prefer) with the Myarc Mouse. It shows the graphics potential of the Geneve – certainly akin to the Ataris and Amigas being produced at the time (if not slightly better) and far exceeding the capabilities of PCs and Macs at the time. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss11.png title subtitle text image CAR-AZY RACER screenshot Though this game is all low-resolution (ported from the TOMY Tutor, which was basically a TI-99/4A console!), they show some of the potential of the machine in low-res mode. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss14.png title subtitle text image POOYAN CLONE screenshot Though this game is all low-resolution (ported from the TOMY Tutor, which was basically a TI-99/4A console!), they show some of the potential of the machine in low-res mode. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss12.png title subtitle text image SCRAMBLE CLONE screenshot Though this game is all low-resolution (ported from the TOMY Tutor, which was basically a TI-99/4A console!), they show some of the potential of the machine in low-res mode. /media/museum/software/myarc_geneve_ss13.png title url platform text MESS http://www.mess.org Multiplatform MESS seems to emulate the Geneve 9640! title url text www.ti99.com http://perso.orange.fr/fabrice.montupet/geneve.htm Nice information (french) title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com Schematics, docs, info and more title url cover text THE MYARC 9640 USER'S MANUAL FOR MDOS 2.0 ftp://ftp.whtech.com/geneve/ /media/museum/docs/couvs/myarc_geneve_mdos_manual.jpg [**THE MYARC 9640 USER'S MANUAL FOR MDOS 2.0**](ftp://ftp.whtech.com/geneve/)written by Jack Miller  compiled/archived by Jack Miller\  type of document : PDF\  size : 195 KB\  source : [ftp.whtech.com](ftp://ftp.whtech.com) title url cover text SCHEMATICS FOR THE GENEVE 9640 http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/geneve/geneve.html /media/museum/docs/couvs/myarc_geneve_doc_schematics.jpg [**SCHEMATICS FOR THE GENEVE 9640**](http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/geneve/geneve.html)written by Eric Bray  compiled/archived by Eric Bray\  type of document : Unknown\  size : 4 MB total\  source : [www.mainbyte.com](http://www.mainbyte.com) 1208 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230609150029/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1208 2023-06-09

In 1983, Texas Instruments announced the cancellation of the 99/4A Home Computer. This was shortly after they announced their intention to produce its successor, the TI-99/8, a computer with the "big brother" to the 4A's TMS9900 processor, the TMS9995.

Myarc was a company that made a name for itself selling expansion cards for the TI's Peripheral Expansion Box, including memory, RS232, and disk controller cards. They also produced a "replacement" for the large PE Box in a smaller self-contained unit. Then, Myarc dropped the bombshell that they were producing an "upgrade" computer. The unnamed machine - actually just a mock-up in a shell very similar to the 99/8, was shown at the large, annual Chicago TI Faire.

After a few years of false starts and production delays, the Myarc Geneve 9640 Family Computer was for sale. The TI PE Box attached to the 4A via an interface card and large "firehose" cable. The Geneve replaced this card, its cable, and the TI console itself - a "computer on a card." It featured the faster processor meant for the 99/8, 80-column high-res graphics (composite and RGB interfaces were included), the ability to run almost all 4A software (including cartridges saved to a disk format), mouse and joystick interfaces, an IBM-style keyboard, and an Operating System somewhat similar to DOS.

The system shipped with mostly incomplete software, and this ultimately led to the demise of Myarc and the machine itself. Today, Genve's can be found but are fairly rare.

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Contributors: Andy Frueh and the TI community

We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.