Calculator Reference Pages and 84color.com

KermMartian · 14 Feb 2013

Since November 2012, when Cemetech first broke the news about TI's new color-screen TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition graphing calculator, we have been working hard to organize our reference information. Though for over a decade Cemetech has provided TI-BASIC and z80 programming help (among much more), we didn't have a centralized set of reference materials pointing to our many tools and tutorials. Our new Tools and Reference page replaces the old Links button in the Cemetech header. Besides listing our webapps like the jsTIfied calculator emulator, SourceCoder TI-BASIC IDE, and United-TI forum archives, it links to reference pages for all of the Casio and TI graphing calculators we work with.

As you can see by clicking any of the calculator icons at the bottom of this article, we have collected specifications, math tutorials, and programming tutorials for the TI-83 Plus family, the TI-84 Plus family, the Casio Prizm, and (soon) the TI-89. My fellow administrators and I have worked hard to find particularly well-written topics, tutorials, and (of course) my books on each calculator's math and programming capabilities, but we need more, and we need your help. If you consider yourself a good writer and a calculator pro, we invite you to write up a good post or topic on any math or programming skill that you feel new users need to know or often look for. Any sufficiently well-written and useful item will be linked from those reference pages, and we may even find a token badge or signature bar to reward contributors. Have you found any particularly excellent external resources that we're missing? We'd love to know about those too.

To focus particular attention on our rapidly-growing resources for the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, we are proud to introduce 84color.com, an easy-to-remember way to find TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition tutorials, references, and specs. We will be paying particularly close attention to expanding this page with tutorials and guides, and we will be strongly encouraging users to contribute topics and posts on the Cemetech forum about the new calculator. We are even considering (yet another) possible re-arrangement of Cemetech's subforums to make calculator help topics easier to find. Tell your friends about 84color.com, and please help us find more useful materials that our visitors need to know!

Tools and References

Index of tools and reference pages

84color.com, Cemetech's reference and resource page on the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition

Click on any calculator image below for that calculator's reference page:

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comicIDIOT · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:12:36 pm Post subject:

And now http://ti84color.com too! Smile

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-Alex

KermMartian · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:13:50 pm Post subject:

elfprince13 · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:45:20 pm Post subject:

Some really intriguing pictures in that bunch. Interestingly, looks like he's writing to the whole screen.
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KermMartian · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 08:47:26 pm Post subject:

ajcord · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 09:15:38 pm Post subject:

Looking at that TI-Planet gallery, I saw the pictures of the processor. From what I can make out (with some help from GIMP), it reads:

TI REF
B4PLUSB/TA3
F6TX7AFG-β002 <---Not sure about the beta
JAPAN 1234HAL
0592??????? <---This is mostly covered up

I couldn't find anything on Google with these codes, but maybe someone can use them to find out more about the processor.

EDIT: According to a better picture, here's what it actually says:
TI REF
84PLUSB/TA3
T6TX7AFG-0002
JAPAN 0616HAL
234535
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Tari · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 10:33:48 pm Post subject:

Given the pin count, that's almost certainly an ASIC similar to that found in the existing 84+ series. It's a 144-pin LQFP with lots of decoupling, so there's probably a lot of logic in there. The markings seem to support that theory, possibly decoding as "84 Plus B, rev TA3".

X01D appears to be a 32 kHz crystal for an RTC, while X02D seems to be a precision 48 MHz oscillator. A logical choice, since it divides easily into the 12 MHz USB reference clock.

Core voltage is probably 3.3V, since the flash chip (Macronix MX29LV320ETTI, 32 megabit) is rated to run in that range. There are a number of little SOT-23 and similar devices on the board, probably for level conversion and power supply.

J1H is almost certainly the LCD connector, which appears to carry a bus that's 8 bits wide. I'd guess the actual LCD controller is mated directly to the LCD assembly (chip-on-glass?) and the flex cable on J1H goes to that.
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Ask questions the smart way · タリ

KermMartian · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:15:33 pm Post subject:

Hmm, the datasheets I was finding indicated a 128Mb Flash chip. I find 4MB hard to believe, if there is 3.5MB of user-accessible Flash. Them upgrading the OS to use color and still fitting in half a megabyte sounds unlikely to me. Wink

Yes, I have the same idea with the LCD, but I don't think it's terribly likely that they rolled their own controller. If we have any chance of emulating this, we'll need to know more about that.
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comicIDIOT · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:26:28 pm Post subject:

KermMartian · Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:31:08 pm Post subject:

You mean the one that appears to be drawn on in chalk or crayon? That's a standard way of indicating that a chip or component has passed quality control or quality assurance.
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comicIDIOT · Posted: 15 Feb 2013 08:42:22 am Post subject:

Ah got it. It looks like the paste that was there was transparent because the cross was unaltered even with the paste removed.
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-Alex

KermMartian · Posted: 15 Feb 2013 03:16:23 pm Post subject:

KermMartian · Posted: 17 Feb 2013 05:54:34 pm Post subject:

*bump* To the interested parties, Cemetech and Omnimaga will be simultaneously posting an update about the hardware tomorrow, based on critor's calculator and a weekend of hard work by some of the community's top ASM and hardware minds.
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