Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!gatech!ncar!tank!oddjob!uxc!ksuvax1!deimos!richard@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
From: richard@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (RICHARD KERSHENBAUM)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti
Subject: Whatsa TI Portable Professional?
Message-ID: <64@deimos.cis.ksu.edu>
Date: 24 Aug 88 20:33:39 GMT
Sender: news@deimos.cis.ksu.edu
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 38

Last weekend I bought a 1983-vintage TI Portable Professional Computer, and I'm
hoping someone reading this newsgroup can tell me what I have.  The machine was
being sold with a printer that I wanted for use with my cp/m Kaypro.  It was
cheap, so I took a chance.

The machine I have is pretty basic: 1 double-sided floppy, 128k, and one
parallel port.  The video board appears to contain a serial port, but you have
to add a separate cable and DB25 connector.  It came with assorted software,
including MS-DOS 1.25.

My questions are these:

1. Can the machine be upgraded to run a later version of MS-DOS and to
read/write diskettes at 360K (instead of 320k)?  If so, does this require a
hardware change, and where is the hardware/software available?

2. The manual talks about expandability to 256k, and there are sockets on the
memory expansion board to acommodate this.  But will it accept a standard PC/XT
memory expansion board to go above 256k?

3. Will other PC/XT-compatible boards work in this machine?

Thanks for any help!  If I can cheaply upgrade the beast to at least MS-DOS
2.n, I may hang onto it.  If not, I guess I'll stick with the trusty Kaypro,
and sell the TI to someone who needs a cheap stanadlone word-processor.

  ____________________________________________________
 |                                                    )
 | Richard M. Kershenbaum                            (
 |       			    		      \   "Nobody does more
 | Manager, Technical Services                   *     |    harm than folks
 | The University of Kansas                            |    who feel bad
 | Computer Center	       			       |    about doing it."
 | Lawrence, Kansas 66045          (913)864-0445       |     
 |						       |    - William Burroughs
 | Bitnet:   richard@ukanvax     	     	       |
 | Internet: richard@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu 	       |
 |_____________________________________________________|