A graphing calculator typically refers to a class of handheld calculators that are capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing numerous other tasks with variables...
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
.
The original TI-83 is itself an upgraded version of the TI-82
TI-82
The TI-82 is a graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments. The TI-82 was designed in 1993 as a stripped down, more user friendly version of the TI-85, and as a replacement for the TI-81. It was the direct predecessor of the TI-83. It shares with the TI-85 a 6 MHz Zilog Z80 microprocessor...
. Released in 1996, it is one of the most used graphing calculators for students. In addition to the functions present on normal scientific calculator
Scientific calculator
A scientific calculator is a type of electronic calculator, usually but not always handheld, designed to calculate problems in science, engineering, and mathematics...
s, the TI-83 includes many features, including function graphing, polar/parametric/sequence graphing modes, statistics, trigonometric, and algebraic functions. Although it does not include as many calculus functions, applications (for the TI-83 Plus—see below) and programs can be downloaded from certain websites, or written on the calculator.
TI replaced the TI-83 with the TI-83 Plus calculator in 1999, which included flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
, enabling the device's operating system to be updated if needed, or for large new Flash Applications to be stored, accessible through a new Apps key. The Flash memory can also be used to store user programs and data. In 2001, the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition was released, which featured approximately nine times the available Flash memory, and over twice the processing speed (15 MHz) of a standard TI-83 Plus, all in a translucent "sparkle" grey case.
The TI-83 was the first calculator in the TI series to have built in assembly language support. The TI-92, TI-85
TI-85
The TI-85 was a graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments based around the Zilog Z80 microprocessor. Designed in 1992 as TI's second graphing calculator , it has since been replaced by the TI-86, which has also been discontinued....
The TI-82 is a graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments. The TI-82 was designed in 1993 as a stripped down, more user friendly version of the TI-85, and as a replacement for the TI-81. It was the direct predecessor of the TI-83. It shares with the TI-85 a 6 MHz Zilog Z80 microprocessor...
were capable of running assembly language programs, but only after sending a specially constructed (hacked) memory backup. The support on the TI-83 could be accessed through a hidden feature of the calculator. Users would write their assembly (ASM) program on their computer, assemble it, and send it to their calculator as a program. The user would then execute the command "Send (9prgmXXX" (where XXX is the name of the program), and it would execute the program. Successors of the TI-83 replaced the Send backdoor with a less-hidden Asm command.
The TI-83 was redesigned twice, first in 1999 and again in 2001. The 1999 redesign introduced a design very similar to the TI-73 and TI-83 Plus, eliminating the sloped screen that has been common on TI graphing calculators since the TI-81. The 2001 redesign (nicknamed the TI-83 "Parcus") introduced a slightly different shape to the calculator, eliminated the glossy screen border, and reduced cost by streamlining the printed circuit board to four units.
A graphing calculator typically refers to a class of handheld calculators that are capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing numerous other tasks with variables...
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
, designed in 1999 as an upgrade to the TI-83. The TI-83 Plus is one of TI's most popular calculators. It uses a Zilog Z80
Zilog Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
A triple A or AAA battery is a standard size of dry cell battery commonly used in portable electronic devices. A carbon-zinc battery in this size is designated by IEC as "R03", by ANSI C18.1 as "24", by old JIS standard as "UM 4", and by other manufacturer and national standard designations that...
as well as backup CR1616 or CR1620 battery. A link port is also built into the calculator in the form of a 2.5mm jack. The main improvement over the TI-83, however, is the addition of 512 KB
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
of Flash ROM, which allows for OS upgrades and applications to be installed. Most of the Flash memory is used by the OS, with 160 KB available for user files and applications. Another development is the ability to install Flash Applications, which allows the user to add functionality to the calculator. Such applications have been made for math and science, text editing, organizers and day planners, editing spread sheets, games, and many other uses.
Designed for use by high school students, though now used by middle school students in some public school systems, it contains all the features of a scientific calculator as well as function, parametric, polar, and sequential graphing capabilities; an environment for financial calculations; matrix operations; on-calculator programming; and more. Symbolic manipulation (differentiation, algebra) is not built into the TI-83 Plus. It can be programmed using a language called TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC is the unofficial name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments 's graphing calculators, including the TI-83 series, TI-84 Plus series, TI-89 series, TI-92 series , TI-73, and TI-Nspire...
, which is similar to the BASIC computer language. Programming may also be done in TI Assembly, made up of Z80 assembly and a collection of TI provided system calls. Assembly programs run much faster, but are more difficult to write. Thus, the writing of Assembly programs is often done on the computer.
TI-83 Plus Silver Edition
The TI-83 Plus Silver Edition is a newer version of the TI-83 Plus calculator, released in 2001. Its enhancements are 1.5 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
, a dual-speed 6/15 MHz processor, 96 KB of additional RAM
Random-access memory
Random access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
(but TI has yet to code support for the entire RAM into an OS), an improved link transfer hardware, a translucent silver case, and more applications preinstalled. It also includes a USB link cable in the box. It is almost completely compatible with the TI-83 Plus; the only problems that may arise are with programs (i.e. games) that may run too quickly on the Silver Edition or with some programs which have problems with the link hardware. The key layout is the same. The TI-83 Plus Silver Edition is listed on the Texas Instruments website as "discontinued."
In April 2004, the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition was replaced by the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition. They feature the same processor and the same amount of Flash memory, but the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition features a built in USB port, clock, and changeable faceplates.
The TI-84 Plus is a graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments which was released in early 2004. There is no original TI-84, only the TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition models. It is an enhanced version of the TI-83 Plus. The key-by-key correspondence is relatively the same, but the 84...
was introduced in April 2004 as a further update to the TI-83 line. Despite the new appearance, there are very few actual changes. The main improvements of the TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition are a modernized case design, changeable faceplates (Silver Edition only), a few new functions, more speed and memory, a clock, and USB
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
port connectivity. The TI-84 Plus also has a brighter screen with a clearer contrast, though this caused a bug with the LCD driver in some calculators. The TI-84 Plus has 3 times the memory of the TI-83 Plus, and the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition has 9 times the memory of the TI-83 Plus. They both have 2.5 times the speed of the TI-83 Plus. The operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
and math functionality remain essentially the same, as does the standard link port for connecting with the rest of the TI Calculator series.
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
CPU, 6 MHz (TI-83, 83+), or 15 MHz (Silver Edition), or Inventec 6S1837 (TI-83+ revision A)
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
ROM (TI-83)
Flash ROM
512 KB with 163 KB available for user data and programs (83+) or 2 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
Random access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
32 KB RAM with 24 KB available for user data and programs (128 KB on Silver Edition, however the extra 96 KB is not user accessible by default, this extra memory is used in some Applications such as Omnicalc for a RAM recovery feature and a virtual calc)
84 series expandable via special software to use up disk space on a USB memory drive.
An electronic visual display is display technology which incorporates flat panel displays, performs as a video display, output device for presentation of images transmitted electronically, for visual reception, without producing a permanent record....
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
I/O may refer to:* Input/output, a system of communication for information processing systems* Input-output model, an economic model of flow prediction between sectors...
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
A triple A or AAA battery is a standard size of dry cell battery commonly used in portable electronic devices. A carbon-zinc battery in this size is designated by IEC as "R03", by ANSI C18.1 as "24", by old JIS standard as "UM 4", and by other manufacturer and national standard designations that...
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
TI-BASIC is the unofficial name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments 's graphing calculators, including the TI-83 series, TI-84 Plus series, TI-89 series, TI-92 series , TI-73, and TI-Nspire...
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Each instruction performs a very specific task, typically either an operation on a unit of data Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions...
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
with a Z80 cross-compiler or an on-calc assembler.
Programming
The TI-83 Plus series are very similar in the languages natively supported by the calculator. These include "TI-ASM" (an unofficial name for the native Z80 assembly language on which the calculator is based) and "TI-BASIC", an interpreted language used by all of TI's calculators.
Z80 assembly
Z80 assembly language gives a programmer much more power over the calculator than the built-in language, TI-BASIC. On the downside, Z80 assembly is more difficult to learn than TI-BASIC. Z80 assembly language can be programmed on the computer and sent to the calculator via USB port, written by hand directly into the program editor (using the hexadecimal equivalents to the op-codes) or compiled using third party compiler programs. Programs written in assembly are much faster and more efficient than those using TI-BASIC, as it is the processor's native language, and does not have to be interpreted like TI-BASIC.
An example program that displays "Hello World!
Hello world program
A "Hello world" program is a computer program that outputs "Hello world" on a display device. Because it is typically one of the simplest programs possible in most programming languages, it is by tradition often used to illustrate to beginners the most basic syntax of a programming language, or to...
" on the screen:
.nolist ; Standard header
include "ti83plus.inc"
.list
.org userMem-2
.db t2ByteTok,tAsmCmp
Main:
b_call(_ClrScrnFull) ; Clears the screen
b_call(_HomeUp) ; Moves the cursor to the top-left corner of the screen
ld hl,Hello ; Loads the address that points to "Hello World" into register hl (16-bit)
b_call(_PutS) ; Displays "Hello World" on the screen
ret ; Pops the last value pushed onto the stack into the program execution register
; May be used to end the program depending on what's on the stack
Hello: ; Gives the label an equate address in memory
.db "Hello World!",0 ; The hex values of "Hello World" are stored in program data
.end ; Marks the end of a file
.end ; Two .ends must be used because of a bug in the standard compiler
TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC is the built in language for TI-84 Plus series calculators, as well as many other TI graphing calculators. TI-BASIC is a non-structured programming
Non-structured programming
Non-structured programming is the historically earliest programming paradigm capable of creating Turing-complete algorithms. It has been followed historically by procedural programming and then object-oriented programming, both of them considered as structured programming.Unstructured programming...
language, meaning it is arranged sequentially, without the use of methods or organized blocks of code. Due to its simplicity and the ubiquity of TI calculators in school curricula, for many students it is their first experience with programming. Below is an example of a Hello World
Hello world program
A "Hello world" program is a computer program that outputs "Hello world" on a display device. Because it is typically one of the simplest programs possible in most programming languages, it is by tradition often used to illustrate to beginners the most basic syntax of a programming language, or to...
program equivalent to the assembly language example.
ClrHome
Disp "Hello World!"
The TI-83 calculators have almost all of the same TI-BASIC commands that the TI-84 calculators do. The main difference is that the TI-84 calculators have commands relating to the date, and the time. Visit the TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC is the unofficial name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments 's graphing calculators, including the TI-83 series, TI-84 Plus series, TI-89 series, TI-92 series , TI-73, and TI-Nspire...
article to learn more about TI-BASIC.
Signing keys
In 2009, a group of enthusiasts used brute force and distributed methods to find all of the cryptographic signing keys for the calculator firmwares, allowing users to directly flash their own operating systems to the devices. The key for the TI-83+ calculator was first published by someone at the unitedti.org forum. They needed several months to crack it. The other keys were found after a few weeks by the unitedti.org community through a distributed computing
Distributed computing
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems. A distributed system consists of multiple autonomous computers that communicate through a computer network. The computers interact with each other in order to achieve a common goal...
project. Texas Instruments then began sending out DMCA take-down requests to a variety of different websites mirroring the keys, including unitedTI and reddit.com. They then became subject to the Streisand effect
Streisand effect
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
and were mirrored on a number of different sites, including Wikileaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
