Texas Instruments TMS9900

Introduced in 1976 and based on the Texas Instruments 990 minicomputer CPU, the TMS9900 was one of the first true 16-bit microprocessors (the first were probably National Semiconductor IMP-16 or AMD-2901 bit slice processors in 16 bit configuration). It was designed as a single chip version of the TI 990 minicomputer series, much like the Intersil 6100 was a single chip PDP-8, and the Fairchild 9440 and Data General mN601 were both one chip versions of Data General's Nova. Unlike the IMS 6100, however, the TMS 9900 had a mature, well thought out design.
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