The CC-40

The screen is a LCD and is one line by 31 characters long. Display contrast is adjusted by a dial which is located on the left side of the machine. Special characters are also located on the display: SHFT, CTL, FN, DEG, RAD, GRAD, I/O, UCL, ERROR, a low battery indicator, left and right arrows to indicate that text had scrolled off the screen, and six arrow-shaped indicators that can be turned off and on by the user through the use of the 'CALL INDIC' command. Although fairly simple as graphics, custom characters can be defined. Using the 'CALL CHAR' command, the dots in 5-by-8 grids can be specified as being 'on' or 'off'.

A cartridge port is located on the upper right corner of the machine. Memory could be expanded by installing a cartridge or 'preprogrammed Solid State Software' cartridges could be used. Titles released by Texas Instruments included: Memo Processor, Mathmatics, Games #1, Finance, and Electrical Engineering.

This is the back of my CC40. As you can see, it operates on two 'AA' batteries or an optional AC power adapter. The power adapter (TI model 9201) is plugged into a jack in the rear left corner of the machine. The CC40 has an automatic power down feature which will be activated after approximately ten minutes of no input. Even when turned off, the 'constant memory' feature will retain programs stored in memory.

The CC40 is composed of two double-sided circuit boards connected
to one another by two ribbon cables (yellow- shown below).

This is the 'top' circuit board. A rubber pad sits between each of the keys and the coresponding contacts on the circuit board. The pad creates the 'spring back' response of the keys as well as serves to make contact between the lines on the board.

This is the 'bottom' circuit board. The IC's (left to right by column) are as follows:

HM6116LP-4
HM6116LP-4
HN61256PC09
HM6116LP-4
I041036-1
TMX70C20N2L

(As near as I can tell.)

Photos From The CC40 Box:




Caption Reads:
"Printer/Plotter prints standard characters and full graphics in four colors."
Powered by batteries.

Caption: "Wafertape [tm] digital tape drive- fast and reliable mass storage."
On my box, a sticker below that caption states: "Wafertape digital tape drive is not available." Reportedly, the wafertape drive was not reliable and it was therefore never put into production. No other form of mass storage device was ever made for the CC40- a major pitfall.

A CC-40 system. Stacked on the right (top to bottom): Printer/Plotter, Wafertape Digital Tape Drive, RS232/Parallel Interface.

Regarding the RS232, the box reads: "An RS232/Parallel Interface- To Talk With The World. An RS232/Parallel interface allows you to connect the CC-40 with most 80-column printers and X-Y plotters. By adding a telephone coupler (modem), you can communicate with computers and information nets across the world."

I purchased this book off the internet. It's titled Learn Basic: A Guide to Programming The Texas Instruments Compact Computer 40 by David Thomas and Texas Instruments. The back cover states that Mr. Thomas was a writing consultant to TI. According to the 1983 copyright, the book was published by McGraw-Hill and Texas Instruments.

Composed of 28 'lessons' it apparently assumes no previous knowledge of BASIC programming and begins with variables and moves through to string manipulations and logical operations.

- Download this book from the file database: Guide To Programming The CC40

The CC40 was shipped with a user's guide that lists the lists the CC40 specs, and explains how to program it.

- Download this book from the file database: CC40 User's Guide

This file has been in the database since 2006, but on 7/10/15, I uploaded a 'cleaned up' version.

Want to get your own CC40?

Own a CC40!  Mike Dudeck sells CC40 computers and equipment, and has sent me a new price list.  You can take a look at his inventory by visiting www.texintreasures.com or you can contact Mike at [email protected]

CC40 Articles By Charles Good

Excerpts from the book
Using & Programming The TI-99/4A by Frederick Holtz

• The CC40 has a suggested retail price of $249.95.
• Three low-cost peripherals will also be available: and RS-232 interface, a printer/plotter, and a Wafertape digital tape drive. Other peripherals such as a wand input device, modems, printers, and a black and white television monitor should be available late in 1983. Each peripheral includes a Hex-bus port and interface cable. Peripherals will also operate with the TI-99/2 and, with an adapter, will work with the TI-99/4A computer as well.
• The RS-232 interface, HX-300, has a suggested retail price of $99.95.
• The printer plotter is an x-y plotter with four-color capability using 2.5 inch wide plain paper. In addition to x-y plotting, it can print up to 36 characters per line. The printer/plotter peripheral, HX-1000, has a suggested retail price of $199.95.
• The Wafertape digital tape drive can store up to 48K bytes and has a data transfer rate of 8,000 bits per second. The Wafertape unit, HX-2000, has a retail price of $139.95.
• The ac power adapter, AC9201, has a suggested retail price of $14.95.
• Twenty-two software applications packages, including 8 plug-in Solid State Software cartridges and 14 Wafertape cartridges, are also available. The plug-in cartridges, which sell for prices ranging from $39.95 to $124.95, are: Mathematics, Finance, Perspective Drawing, Statistics, Business Graphics, Nonparametric Statistics, and Advanced Electrical Engineering ($59.95 each); Editor/Assembler ($124.95); and Games I and Games II ($39.95 each). Wafertape cartridges, which have a suggested retail price of $19.95 each, are: Elementary Dynamics, Regression/Curve Fitting, Pipe Design, Production and Planning, Inventory Control, Electrical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Photography, Solar Energy, Profitability Analysis, Quality Assurance: Control Data. A total of 75 applications solutions cartridges (48 solid state and 27 Wafertape programs) are also available. TI is initiating aggressive third-party authorship programs as well as developing software internally.

CC40 Programs by Walid Maalouli

You can type these Basic programs into your CC40:

• Mastermind
  
• Hangman
• Blackjack (text listing) | Blackjack (bianry)
• Convert (text listing) | Convert (bianry)
  -a base conversion utility for programmers which will convert between Bin, Hex and Dec bases, give the 2's complement of a number and convert float numbers into Radix 100 notation and vice versa

Links

CC40:
CC40 Files In The 99er File Database
Purchase A CC40 From Tex*In Treasures
Old-Computers.com

TI-74:
The Pocket Computer Museum
High Tech Solutions

Something to contribute? Questions? Comments? Corrections? E-mail me at [email protected]

Texas Instruments, TI, TI-99/4A, CC40, Wafertape, Solid State Software, and Constant Memory are all trademarks or service marks of Texas Instruments Inc.

Items on this non-commercial site are presented for reference/nostalgia purposes only.

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