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Texas Instruments TI-76.fr

Date of introduction:  June 2009 Display technology:  LCD dot matrix
New price:  EUR 56.96 Display size:  8 * 16 characters
Size:  7.2" x 3.2" x 0.85"
 183 x 82 x 22 mm3
   
Weight:  6.0 ounces, 171 grams Serial No:  2037004620
Batteries:  4*AAA + CR1620 (35mA) Date of manufacture:  mth 04 year 2009
AC-Adapter:   Origin of manufacture:  China (P)
Precision:  14 Integrated circuits:  ASIC: TI REF TI-738X
 Flash: MX29LV400
 Display: Novatek NT7564H
Memories:      
Program steps:  27k Bytes Courtesy of:  © Texas Instruments 

Texas Instruments announced on their French website in May 2009 the TI-76.fr as a new entry-level Graphing calculator with reduced functionality to compete with the very popular Casio Graph 25+. It is based on the TI-82 Stats.fr, a mixture of the original TI-82 STATS and the TI-83 PLUS. In North America the TI-73 was developed for the same target audience already in 1998 and is in 2009 as TI-73 Explorer still available. Don't miss the TI-Lycée Pro.fr (Prototype of the TI-76.fr) manufactured in July 2008 and the amazing TI-84 Pocket.fr introduced in June 2011.

We prepared together with fellow collector Xavier Andréani a comprehensive comparison of entry level graphing calculators, to shed some light on the different specifications of the TI-82 and TI-83 / TI-83 Plus based products. 

Michel Zwawiak - most Texas Instruments collectors known from his eBay nickname 2004michelz - lives in France and sent the Datamath Calculator Museum in July 2009 a brand-new TI-76.fr. Thanks!

Dismantling this TI-76.fr manufactured in April 2009 reveals no big surprises. The printed circuit board (PCB) is identical with the TI-82 Stats.fr and contains just three integrated circuits:

ASIC
Flash-ROM
Display Driver


The picture on the right gives an enhanced view of the ASIC "TI-REF TI-738X" that clocks the Z80 microprocessor with 6 MHz and incorporates the 32k Bytes RAM and some supporting logic. Learn more about the Hardware Architecture of TI’s Graphing Calculators. The ASIC was probably manufactured by Toshiba and recalls us the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition with the "TI-REF 83PL2M/TA2" ASIC and the early TI-84 Plus with its "TI-REF 83PLUSB/TA2" ASIC. The ASIC "TI REF TI-738X" was obviously used in the revised TI-73 Explorer, too.

TI-76FR_ROM.jpg (33155 Byte)The TI-76.fr is based - like most Graphing calculators introduced after the TI-83 - on Flash technology, we located in this TI-76.fr a Macronix 29LV400 Flash ROM device with 512k Bytes capacity for programs and data.

The driver circuit of the LC-Display was traditionally manufactured by Toshiba for Texas Instruments' graphing calculators. This TI-76.fr manufactured in 2009 shows with the Novatek NT7564H a one-by-one replacement. It is just a bare chip mounted on a flexible piece of circuit board attached between the display and the main PCB.

ROM-Versions:

TI-76FR_OS.jpg (43210 Byte)1.00fr5

You can check the ROM version of your TI-76.fr using the following key sequence and reading the number on your screen:

[2nde] [Suppr] [Mode] [2nde] [Suppr]

Information provided by Xavier Andréani.  

 

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If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.

© Joerg Woerner, June 6, 2009. No reprints without written permission.