Two Bytes Are Better Than One (Jul, 1978)
Two Bytes Are Better Than One
TMS 9900 16BIT MICROCOMPUTER SS-16 THE FULL POWER OF THE 1 6-BIT TMS 9900 MICROPROCESSOR IS NOW AVAILABLE WITH THE UNIQUE COMBINATION OF RELIABLE HARDWARD AND FAST, EASY TO USE SOFTWARE IN THE TECHNICO SS-16. WITH MINICOMPUTER PERFORMANCE THE TECHNICO 16-BIT MICROCOMPUTERS ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE SINGLE BOARD SUPER STARTER SYSTEM AT UNDER $400 TO THE FULL SS-16 WITH UP TO 65K BYTES OF MEMORY, MINI-FLOPPY OR FULL FLOPPY DISKS, A 4800 BAUD DIGITAL CASSETTE, 64 COLOR VIDEO BOARD OPTION, RS232 AND 20 MA CURRENT LOOP ALL COMBINED WITH ONE OF THE INDUSTRY’S FASTEST BASICS AND A FULL ASSEMBLER, EDITOR, LINKING LOADER PACKAGE. SYSTEMS ARE AVAILABLE COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND TESTED OR IN UNASSEMBLED TEC-KIT™ FORM. EXPLICIT MANUAL INCLUDED OR AVAILABLE SEPARATELY AT $35. TO LEARN MORE…JUST TEAR OFF A PIECE OF THIS AD AND RETURN TO TECHNICO OR CALL OUR HOTLINE 1-800/638-2893 OR YOUR LOCAL DEALER.
EUROPEAN MODELS AVAILABLE THROUGH TECHNICO INTERNATIONAL
ECHNICO INCORPORATED
9130 RED BRANCH RD COLUMBIA. MD 21045 PHONE 301 596 4100
Related posts:
- Small wonder: a breadbox-size computer with up to 1 million bytes of fault-control, semiconductor memory at 5c a byte. (Sep, 1977)
- TI Micro Electronics. (Sep, 1977)
- Introducing Apple II (Sep, 1977)
- New 1978 Electronic Games (Jan, 1978)
- The Wizard of Odyssey Reveals The Key to Greater Challenge. (Oct, 1982)
I remember seeing this ad! Back then I thought “Wow! If I buy this computer, women will think I’m hot!”
I got a TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2 instead.
And no girlfriends.
(I’m still a little upset about that.)
I can find nothing substantial on the Internet about this computer at all. I wonder if any were ever sold, or if it was just vapourware. This machine isn’t mentioned on the Wikipedia’s article about the TMS9900:
http://en.wikipedia.org…
@ John W – Yea selling hardware to geeks with sex is like shooting virgins in a barrel.
Hmmm, The address for Technico Inc is a strip mall and the one for Technico International is a house.
I couldn’t find anything on this company or the computer either.
I built one of these boards and reviewed it for the magazine I worked for, so yes, it was real. It was probably the earliest 16-bit system for hobbyists, but it had virtually no software, just a ROM monitor program, and it failed to gain critical momentum. The TMS9900 microprocessor used a memory-to-memory architecture which made it quite slow – an add involved two memory reads and a memory write – although it was quite elegant and fairly easy to program by comparison with its major competitor, the 8086. I still remember inserting the processor into its socket on the board – it was a 64-pin ceramic package, and I had to be careful to apply even pressure so as to not break the back of the package.
@Hirudinea: how do you get virgins into a barrel anyway?
@JMynt, Google Maps thinks the address for Technico International is a house, but it’s actually a few lots over – right where the Republic Electronics building is. Republic Electronics is slightly obscure but seems to provide commercial and (*cough*Arlington*cough*) military electronics to Latin American countries.
Maybe they made so much selling explicit manuals, they didn’t need to sell the computers.
Columbia MD is right next door to Ft. Meade — The NSA.
They probably went out of business because their caps lock key wore out.
Why is this ad yelling at me?