enhancing TIPC (tipc.cpp) machine support

[burbon04]

The Texas Instruments Professional Computer (TIPC) appears to have been added recently, with the current 0.289 codebase already supporting parts of its basic system layout.

It is currently marked as "NOT WORKING", but attempting to start the system at least triggers the ROM POST, reaching "System Error 0004", shown in proper TIPC font. That specific error code is generated when early hardware initialization fails, e.g. when the tight timing windows are not met.

I've been looking into the system for some time now, having access to real hardware, and I'd like to help improve emulation support. I've already managed to get it through POST to the point where it attempts to access the floppy disk to boot. However, my code might be a bit hacked up currently.

Also, earlier this year I created an Arduino-based keyboard interface to connect USB/PS2 keyboards to the TIPC, so I could also help with adding support for the proprietary keyboard.

I've read the "Contributing to MAME" part of the website, but I'm still not sure how to contribute in this case?

[burbon04]

Ok I just found out that the TIPC platform seems to already be under active development ;)
Not in the main branch here, but there’s a fork by "stovebolt" with a branch called tipc-improvements that already significantly extends its functionality. Very nice!