Texas Instruments Explorer

<h2 id="history">History</h2>
<p>The Explorer was used to develop and deploy <a href="/facts/Artificial_intelligence/lJGauQwX">artificial intelligence</a> software. Later models were based on a special <a href="/facts/32-bit_computing/TDMVce8s">32-bit</a> <a href="/facts/Microprocessor/Fx9CaQht">microprocessor</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> developed by TI, which hardware had enhanced support for executing <a href="/facts/Lisp_(programming_language)/xJHA3CrX">Lisp</a> software.
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<h2 id="operating-system">Operating system</h2>
<p>The operating system of the Explorer was written in <a href="/facts/Lisp_Machine_Lisp/6VsxDuoA">Lisp Machine Lisp</a> and also supported <a href="/facts/Common_Lisp/mq1pRbSF">Common Lisp</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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<h2 id="use">Use</h2>
<p>A notable application is SPIKE,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> the scheduling system for the <a href="/facts/Hubble_Space_Telescope/NQeIf0vw">Hubble Space Telescope</a>. SPIKE was developed on Texas Instruments Explorer workstations.
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<h2 id="models">Models</h2>
<ul><li>Explorer<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a></li>
<li>Explorer II, based on the Lisp microprocessor</li>
<li>Explorer LX, which combines the Explorer with a co-processor running a version of <a href="/facts/Unix/0pNL2seI">Unix</a> (TI System V)</li>
<li>MicroExplorer, a <a href="/facts/NuBus/5UIn0nv8">NuBus</a> board for the <a href="/facts/Apple_Macintosh/8GhnXTK0">Apple Macintosh</a> based on the Lisp microprocessor</li></ul>

<h2 id="publications">Publications</h2>
<ul><li>Software innovations for the Texas Instruments Explorer computer, Tennant, H.R.; Bate, R.R.; Corey, S.M.; Davis, L.; Kline, P.; Oren, L.G.; Rajinikanth, M.; Saenz, R.; Stenger, D.; Thompson, C.W., Proceedings of the IEEE Volume 73, Issue 12, Dec. 1985 Page(s): 1771 - 1790</li>
<li>Artificial intelligence hardware architectures for the Space Station era: The Texas Instruments Explorer and Compact LISP Machine, Krueger, S. ; Manuel, G. ; Matthews, G. ; Ott, G. ; Watkins, C., Opt. Eng. ; Vol/Issue: 25:11</li>
<li>Dussud, P. H. 1988. Lisp hardware architecture: the Explorer II and beyond. SIGPLAN Lisp Pointers 1, 6 (Apr. 1988), 13–18. <a href="http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1317224.1317226">http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1317224.1317226</a></li>
<li>P.H. Dussud, TICLOS: An implementation of CLOS for the Explorer Family, In Proc. OOPSLA'89, International Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages and Applications, 1989, pp. 215–219.</li>
<li>Zeitgeist: Database Support for Object-Oriented Programming (1988), by S Ford, J Joseph, D Langworthy, D Lively, G Pathak, E Perez, R. Peterson, D. Sparacin, S. Thatte, D. Wells, S. Agarwal, In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Object-Oriented Database Systems (Zeitgeist was an OODBMS developed by Texas Instruments for the Explorer)</li></ul>
<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/microexplorer/">TI MicroExplorer documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/explorer/">TI Explorer documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/company/history/watson.htm">Texas Instruments history, In search for a market</a></li>
<li><a href="https://archive.org/details/ti-explorer">TI Explorer Lisp Machine Source Code (1991)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai-repository/ai/lang/lisp/code/impdep/explorer/0.html">TI Explorer Lisp Code: The Stanford Knowledge Systems Lab's set of Explorer patches and tools.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.unlambda.com/lispm/index.html">Emulators</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Bosshart, Patrick; Hewes, C.; Chang, Mi-Chang; Chau, Kwok-Kit; Hoac, C.; Houston, T.; Kalyan, V.; Lusky, S.; Mahant-Shetti, S.; Matzke, D.; Ruparel, K.; Shaw, Ching-Hao; Sridhar, T.; Stark, D. (February 1987). "A 553K-Transistor LISP Processor Chip". IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. New York, New York, United States: 202–203. doi:10.1109/ISSCC.1987.1157084. S2CID 195841103. Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers vol sc-22 issue nr 5 <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/Doi_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>"The Explorer System Software Manuals: Lisp Reference" (PDF). 1985. <a href="http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/explorer/2243201-0001_LispRef.pdf" target="_blank">http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/explorer/2243201-0001_LispRef.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>SPIKE (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-27, Artificial Intelligence Scheduling for the Hubble Space Telescope, Mark Johnston, Glenn Miller, Jeff Sponsler, Shon Vick, Robert Jackson, Space Telescope Institute <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170227202228/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19900017961.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20170227202228/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19900017961.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:4"><p>"Official TI Explorer Computer System Brochure". Classic Computer Brochures. 22 September 2014. <a href="http://classic.technology/texas-instruments-explorer-computer-system/" target="_blank">http://classic.technology/texas-instruments-explorer-computer-system/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
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Texas Instruments Explorer open-in-new

Texas Instruments Explorer