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Texas Instruments TI-84 PLUS (Wal-Mart)

Date of introduction:  August 2008 Display technology:  LCD dot matrix
New price:  $109.24  Display size:  8 * 16 characters
Size:  7.5" x 3.3" x 0.85"
 190 x 84 x 22 mm3
   
Weight:  7.4 ounces, 208 grams Serial No:  2498029280
Batteries:  4*AAA + SR44 (35mA) Date of manufacture:  mth 03 year 2008 (J)
AC-Adapter:   Origin of manufacture:  China (P)
Precision:  14 Integrated circuits:  ASIC: TI REF 84PLCR/TA1
 Flash: S29AL008D
 Display: Novatek NT7564H
Memories:      
Program steps:  24k Bytes, 480k Bytes Flash ROM Courtesy of:  Joerg Woerner

This TI-84 Plus with a unique translucent housing was introduced for the Back-to-School 2008 campaign by Wal-Mart, the largest grocery retailer in the United States, together with a blue TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, its red sibling and a pink TI-30X IIS.

Comparing this TI-84 Plus manufactured in March 2008 (Revision Code J) with an early product assembled in 2004 reveals only few differences. The design sports still 3 chips on one printed circuit board (PCB):

TI REF 84PLCR/TA1: Z80 microprocessor, RAM, USB-Port 
    and supporting logic
Spansion S29AL008D: 1M Bytes Flash ROM
Novatek NT7564H: Single-chip 64*120 pixel display driver

TI-84Plus_WM_TL2008_ASIC.jpg (97495 Byte)The picture on the right gives an enhanced view of the ASIC that clocks the Z80 microprocessor with 15 MHz and incorporates the RAM, USB-Port and logic. Learn more about the Hardware Architecture of TI’s Graphing Calculators. Please notice the smaller package of the new TI REF 84PLCR/TA1 ASIC compared with the previous TI REF 83PLUSB/TA2 or TI REF 84PLUSB/TA3 found in the TI-84 Plus family manufactured between 2004 and 2007.

Recently members of the Graphing Calculator Programming community under the lead of Xavier Andréani made a very interesting discovery:

All TI-84 Plus / S.E. with the TA2 or TA3 ASIC have access to 128k Bytes RAM.
All TI-84 Plus / S.E. with the TA1 ASIC have access to only 48k Bytes RAM using
    the same assembly commands.

TI-84Plus_WM_TL2008_LCD.jpg (61704 Byte)The driver circuit of the LC-Display was traditionally manufactured by Toshiba for Texas Instruments' graphing calculators. This TI-84 Plus manufactured in 2008 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.


While comparing this TI-84 Plus manufactured in 2008 with a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition from 2008 we noticed that Texas Instruments used for both calculators identical PCBs. The original designs of these calculators introduced in 2004 used PCBs with some minor differences:

Calculator Date/Rev Code PCB ID PCB Date Code ASIC Display Driver
TI-84 Plus S-0304 TG2837MB-4424 wk10 yr04 TA2 Toshiba T6K04
TI-84 Plus S-0804 TG2837MB-4424 wk29 yr04 TA2 Toshiba T6K04
TI-84 Plus  P-0308J GECKO-TG2837/2867-ST-2440 wk08 yr08 TA1 Novatek NT7564H
TI-84 Plus  P-0209L GECKO-TG2837/2867-ST-2441 wk52 yr08 TA1 Novatek NT7564H
TI-84 Plus S.E. S-0404 TG2867TMB-4424 wk15 yr04 TA2 Toshiba T6K04
TI-84 Plus S.E. S-0504 TG2867PMB-4424 wk21 yr04 TA2 Toshiba T6K04
TI-84 Plus S.E. S-0606F TG2867FMB-2441 wk22 yr06 TA3 Novatek NT7564H
TI-84 Plus S.E. S-0407G GECKO-TG2837/2867MB-ST-2444 wk14 yr07 TA3 Toshiba T6K04
TI-84 Plus S.E. P-0308L GECKO-TG2837/2867-ST-2441 wk13 yr08 TA1 Toshiba T6K04
TI-84 Plus S.E. P-0408L GECKO-TG2837/2867-ST-2441 wk13 yr08 TA1 Novatek NT7564H
TI-84 Plus S.E. P-0508M GECKO-TG2837/2867-ST-2441 wk17 yr08 TA1 Novatek NT7564H

The TI-84 Plus supports the ViewScreen panel and the TI-Presenter with an Presentation Link Adapter. A serial port of the calculators allows the connection to the Calculator-Based Laboratory system CBL, its successor CBL 2 and the Calculator-Based Ranger CBR. The added USB interface of the TI-84 Plus family calculators connects directly with the Calculator-Based Ranger CBR 2 introduced in 2004, too. With a new cradle even the optional full-sized QWERTY Keyboard introduced in 2002 matches with the TI-84 Plus series.

Texas Instruments introduced in the Asia Pacific region a different color scheme for the TI-84 Plus based on a baby blue calculator housing. Don't miss the amazing TI-84 Pocket.fr introduced in June 2011 and the TI-83 Plus.fr from 2013.

Don't miss the colorful slide cases developed for the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, they fit on the TI-84 Plus, too.

Texas Instruments announced on March 1st, 2010 the TI-84 Plus Operating System version 2.53MP with MathPrint™ mode for free download. The OS 2.53MP enables users to input and view math symbols and formulas, including stacked fractions, in their handhelds exactly as the equations appear in textbooks.

ROM-Versions:

TI-84Plus_P0308_OS.jpg (45331 Byte)2.43 (December 4, 2007)
2.53MP (February 15, 2010 includes MathPrint)
2.55MP (January 11, 2011)

You can check the ROM version of your TI-84 Plus using the following key sequence and reading the number on your screen:

[2nd] [MEM] [1]

Information provided by ticalc.org and Xavier Andréani.

Exam acceptance:

The TI-84 Plus is permitted (as of September 27, 2008) for use on SAT, ACT, PSAT and AP exams.

 

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

© Joerg Woerner, October 1, 2008. No reprints without written permission.