Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What was the first home computer released by Texas Instruments?
The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A is a home computer, released June 1981 in the United States at a price of $525 ($1,400 adjusted for inflation). It is an enhanced version of the less successful TI-99/4 model, which was released in late 1979 at a price of $1,150 ($4,000 adjusted for inflation). Both models include support for sprites and multi-channel sound, some of the first home computers to include such custom hardware, alongside the Atari 8-bit family also introduced in 1979.
In 1983 National Instruments reached an organizational milestone, developing their first GPIB board to connect instruments to IBM PCs. With the arrival of the Macintosh computer, however, the company felt ready to take advantage of the new graphical interfaces. Kodosky began a research initiative with the assistance of student researchers at the University of Texas into ways to exploit the new interface. This led to the creation of NI's flagship product, the LabVIEW graphical development platform for the Macintosh computer, which was released in 1986. The software allows engineers and scientists to program graphically, by "wiring" icons together instead of typing text-based code. By allowing people to use a more intuitive, less-structured development environment, their productivity greatly increased, making LabVIEW quite popular. The following year, a version of LabVIEW, known as LabWindows, was released for the DOS environment.
The SN76489 Digital Complex Sound Generator (DCSG) is a TTL-compatible programmable sound generator chip from Texas Instruments. It contains:Its main application was the generation of music and sound effects in game consoles, arcade games and home computers (such as the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, BBC Micro, ColecoVision, and IBM PCjr), competing with the similar General Instrument AY-3-8910.
The Texas Instruments Professional Computer (TIPC) and the Texas Instruments Portable Professional Computer (TIPPC) were devices that were both released on January 31, 1983; the TIPC was a desktop PC and the TIPPC was a fully compatible, portable version of the TIPC. Both computers were most often used by white-collar information workers and professionals that needed to gather, manipulate and transmit information. TI was the first company to release videotape training videos for their computers.
The computer was initially designed by DAI for the UK subsidiary of Texas Instruments for use with the PAL televisions used in Britain. TI US did not want to build a PAL version of their TI-99/4A home computer, although they subsequently authorized one after they saw the DAI.
The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A is a home computer, released June 1981 in the United States at a price of $525 ($ adjusted for inflation). It is an enhanced version of the less successful TI-99/4 model, which was released in late 1979 at a price of $1,150 ($ adjusted for inflation). Both models include support for sprites and multi-channel sound, some of the first home computers to include such custom hardware, alongside the Atari 8-bit family also introduced in 1979.
In order to construct the VIC-II, Charpentier and Winterble made a market survey of current home computers and video games, listing up the current features, and what features they wanted to have in the VIC-II. The idea of adding sprites came from the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer and its TMS9918 graphics coprocessor. The idea to support collision detection came from the Mattel Intellivision. The Atari 800 was also mined for desired features. About 3/4 of the chip surface is used for the sprite functionality.
The Texas Instruments company in 1995 released the TI-92 calculator with a CAS based on the software Derive; the TI-Nspire series replaced Derive in 2007. The TI-89 series, first released in 1998, also contains a CAS.
One of the first Christian Video Games was the “Bible Computer Games” series published by BibleBytes (now a division of Kidware Software LLC) for the TRS-80 Color Computer in 1982. The “Bible Computer Games” were then released on the Timex Sinclair and Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer platforms in 1983. The Bible Computer Games Series was then released on the Apple IIe, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC-20, and the Kaypro CP/M computer platforms in 1984. An MS-DOS version of the Bible Computer Games was released in 1986 by PC Enterprises.
Along with former SPI designer Brad Hessel, he founded Ares Development Corporation to produce computer games. Simonsen had already successfully "ported" the board game "The Wreck of the B.S.M. Pandora" to the Apple II, creating one of the first real-time strategy games. A multi-game contract with Texas Instruments fell through when they pulled out of the home computing business in 1984.
By 1982, an estimated 621,000 home computers were in American households, at an average sales price of US$530 (). After the success of the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Commodore PET and the Apple II in 1977, almost every manufacturer of consumer electronics rushed to introduce a home computer. Large numbers of new machines of all types began to appear during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mattel, Coleco, Texas Instruments and Timex, none of which had any previous connection to the computer industry, all had short-lived home computer lines in the early 1980s. Some home computers were more successful – the BBC Micro, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Atari 800XL and Commodore 64, sold many units over several years and attracted third-party software development.
"InfoWorld" criticized the computer's game library as mediocre. TI discouraged third-party development for the 99/4A, including games, but did not license popular arcade games like "Zaxxon" or "Frogger".
In 1977 groups within Texas Instruments were designing a video game console, a home computer to compete against the TRS-80 and Apple II, and a high-end business personal computer with a hard drive. The first two groups merged at TI's consumer products division in Lubbock, Texas; the 99/4's (according to Walden C. Rhines) "ultracheap keyboard", RF modulator, and ROM cartridges came from the console design. Others within the company persuaded the Lubbock group to use TI's TMS9900 CPU.
The 1980 Atari 2600 version was the first official licensing of an arcade game and became the first "killer app" for video game consoles by quadrupling the system's sales. It sold over two million units in its first year on sale as a home console game, making it the first title to sell a million cartridges. Other official ports were released for the Atari 8-bit computer line and Atari 5200 console, while Taito later released it for the Nintendo Famicom in 1985 (Japan only). Numerous unofficial clones were made, such as the popular computer games "Super Invader" (1979) and "TI Invaders" (1981), which was the top-selling game for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A through at least 1982. Adjusted for inflation, all versions of "Space Invaders" are estimated to have exceeded $13 billion in gross revenue, making it the highest-grossing video game of all time.
The Texas Instruments Compact Computer 40 or CC-40 is a battery-operated portable computer that was manufactured and released by Texas Instruments in March 1983. Priced at US$249, it weighs 600 grams (22 ounces) and can be powered by four AA batteries or an AC adapter. It was intended as a portable business computer, and uses TI's TMS70C20 CPU, an 8-bit microprocessor that ran at 2.5 MHz.
Introduced in June 1976, the TMS9900 was one of the first commercially available, single-chip 16-bit microprocessors. The TMS9900 found its most widespread use in the TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A home computers.
The Chisholm Trail is a computer game released in July 1982 for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A personal computer.
Texas Instruments (TI), at the time the world's largest chip manufacturer, decided to enter the home computer market with the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. Announced long before its arrival, most industry observers expected the machine to wipe out all competition – on paper its performance was untouchable, and TI had enormous cash reserves and development capability.
Infocom's games' sales benefited significantly from the portability offered by running on top of a virtual machine. "InfoWorld" wrote in 1984 that "the company always sells games for computers you don't normally think of as game machines, such as the DEC Rainbow or the Texas Instruments Professional Computer. This is one of the key reasons for the continued success of old titles such as Zork." Dornbrook estimated that year that of the 1.8 million home computers in America, one half million homes had Infocom games ("all, if you count the pirated games"). Computer companies sent prototypes of new systems to encourage Infocom to port Z-machine to them; the virtual machine supported more than 20 different systems, including orphaned computers for which Infocom games were among the only commercial products. The company produced the only third-party games available for the Macintosh at launch, and Berlyn promised that all 13 of its games would be available for the Atari ST within one month of its release.
An improved model, the CC-40 Plus, was in the final stages of development. The Plus featured a cassette port, but the project was canceled when Texas Instruments canceled the 99/4A and left the home computer field. 
The MSX computers were built around the Zilog Z80 8-bit processor, assisted with dedicated video graphics and audio coprocessors supplied by Intel, Texas Instruments, and General Instrument. MSX computers received a great deal of software support from the traditional Japanese publishers of game software, but never garnered such support from publishers of productivity applications. Microsoft did, however, produce a special version of the BASIC programming language that ran under MSX.
The Tomy Tutor, originally sold in Japan as the and in the UK as the Grandstand Tutor, is a home computer produced by the Japanese toymaker Tomy. It was architecturally similar, but not identical, to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and used a similar Texas Instruments 16-bit CPU. The computer was launched in the UK and the United States in 1983. Outside Japan, however, sales were not significant.
A version of this game was released on disk for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Home Computer written in Wycove Forth.
Derive was a computer algebra system, developed as a successor to muMATH by the Soft Warehouse in Honolulu, Hawaii, now owned by Texas Instruments. Derive was implemented in , also by Soft Warehouse. The first release was in 1988 for DOS. It was discontinued on June 29, 2007 in favor of the TI-Nspire CAS. The last and final version is Derive 6.1 for Windows.
Two years after the 99/4's debut, TI released the 99/4A, very similar but with a better keyboard and more expansion options. By lowering its price and offering rebates TI sold many more computers; it has been estimated that it had about 35% of the home computer market at its peak.
Munch Man is a video game written by Jim Dramis for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer and published as a cartridge by Texas Instruments in 1982. Based on Namco's "Pac-Man", "Munch Man" includes several variations that alter and enhance gameplay. Dramis later wrote "Parsec" for the TI-99/4A.