The TI-eZ80 series remains based on a 8-bit, accumulator-based ISA with a 8-bit memory bus, and is therefore slower in general code than the TI-68k series based on a 16/32-bit register-based ISA with a 16-bit memory bus.
The higher achievable clock frequency of the eZ80 (basically, 3.5x to 4x, if considering a 48 MHz eZ80 and a 12 or 14 MHz 68000) could narrow the speed gap... but sadly, TI chose slow RAM and slower Flash, slaughtering performance by a factor >= 4.

Maybe switching to faster memory chips is a goal for next-generation TI-84 Super Plus Color Edition / TI-83 Ultra Color Edition TI-eZ80 calculators, around maybe 2020 ?

Oh well, I guess any speed improvement is a good speed improvement.

Kerm, how can TI not want you to work for them?

I completely agree . This is awesome, Kerm.

Thanks, NanoWar. I appreciate the vote of confidence. You never know what the future might hold!

Hi everyone,
I see TI-UK are offering a good deal for teachers to pre-order (£56 including the emulator software) that I definitely intend to exploit. However, I'm puzzled by one difference: TI-UK website has the "TI-84 Plus CE-T" and the US site has just "TI-84 Plus CE", and this different naming is seen on the photos of the calculator. But I can't see what the difference actually is! The photos look identical apart from those two extra characters. I wanted to compare the spec, but the TI-US site doesn't seem to provide a Specification tab, whereas the UK site does. I think it's likely that one is just an export model, essentially identical, although I don't think they've had a separate product name for such in the past.

Does anyone on Cemetech know the difference?

The TI-84 Plus CE-T is the Europe counterpart of the TI-84 Plus CE, but has the PTT LED like the 83PCE.

Thanks! So, bottom line, it functions exactly the same?

No problem!

From what I understand they are essentially the same functionality wise.

I guessed that would be true, but your reassurance is very helpful. Many thanks.

Weirdly enough, the US TI Education site had a specifications tab until a few days ago, when they seem to have removed it. Both the TI-84 Plus CE and the TI-84 Plus CE-T have the same specifications, including the 48MHz ez80 processor, 4MB Flash chip, 256KB RAM, and the same battery, LCD, and other peripheral. The testing LED was required to meet new exam guidelines in some European countries, although I know there are some among us that think the US calculators will eventually get the testing LED too.

Thanks to you also (and I too echo NanoWar's post above).

And I spent so much money on the Silver Edition C last summer...

Do you think that stores will offer "upgrade discounts" to those who bought the 84 Silver Edition C (in a similar vein to the 3DS → New 3DS upgrade discount that Gamestop did)?

I think it is extremely unlikely. First, that would have to be something that Texas Instruments would provide; I doubt that stores would be willing to accept the losses from the returned calculators. Secondly, as far as the stores are concerned, the math and science features of the two calculators are identical, and the only difference is the size and weight of the device. It's primarily people like you and us who appreciate the internal changes.

I was just wondering: What do we know about TI84+CE app signing keys??? I saw that you can buy them in the US now, but not yet in EU, right? I want one .

I don't think that you can buy an app signing key anywhere, the US or the EU. Pronoun issues aside, I'm still discussing and negotiating to do what I can to get the freeware keys released to the community, and I remain hopeful that we'll be able to have some success.

Hi NanoWar: where in EU are you? I'm in UK, and bought my CE direct from TI (it arrived one month ago today). That was an offer which still appears on TI-UK website for teachers to buy the CE + SmartView software for £56 (the latter hasn't arrived yet: they're supposed to send me an activation key at an unspecified date), and there were Euro price equivalents mentioned too. Of course, you may not be a teacher, but if you know one who's willing to be your middle-man, that may be a possibility. It's at the right of the page linked below, or maybe you can find equivalent pages for other European TI sites (I didn't look).

http://education.ti.com/en-GB/uk/products/graphics-calculators/ti-84-plus-ce-t/tabs/overview

If they sold those calcs for this low to the mainstream public, calculators would probably still dominate tablets in schools.

They probably wouldn't, because tablets are used by so many other subject areas. Still, I know what you mean though. I've maintained for decades that it would be smart commercial sense for TI to give discounts to teachers (no vested interest or anything, purely common sense ) as this is their shop window to the students. And they've finally seen reason!

Thanks for sharing this here. It is an awesome price for the bundle - I am considering ordering one once I'm confident coding in C will be on par with that for Casio FX-CG. Also I am slightly confused if there is a way to specify the colour for this order - I would love the pink one - or is this a special teacher's edition in some particular colour? I was under impression that "-T" was just to indicate it was a European model but now I'm not sure if it stands for "teacher's" and has no colour choice?