The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, released in June 1981, was the first widely available 16-bit home computer, powered by a 3 MHz TMS9900 CPU and featuring 16 KB of RAM, a full-travel keyboard, and advanced graphics capabilities including sprite support and 16-color output. Despite its technical strengths, performance was hindered by an 8-bit architecture bottleneck, and intense price competition led to its discontinuation in 1984 after selling approximately 2.8 million units.