Though the recent news of the Nspire CX-II's discovery and subsequent announcement has put this in shadow, TI-Python is still something that the (lazy) engineers down in Texas are working on. To those unfamiliar, TI-Python is TI's Python editor designed to compete with the Python implementations made available on competing calculators such as the Numworks (who started the trend) or the Casio fx-CG50. Confirmed by TI-Planet in May, Texas Instruments later confirmed it on their site. TI also made us aware of their poor excuse of a Python implementation that they call the TI-Python adapter but I prefer to call it the "cube".
This adapter actually runs the Python interpreter while the TI-83 Premium CE, the French equivalent of the 84+ CE (because France is the most competitive market and that's why they are rolling it out in the first place), using an application called PyAdaptr, acts as a sort of thin client that shows the interpreter's REPL. For all calculators with Python before the TI-83PCE, Micropython, an open-source Python interpreter built for microcontrollers, was used. It was speculated that TI was unable to get Micropython running on the eZ80 CPU used by the 83PCE (and, by extension, the 84PCE) because of the lack of sufficient C compiler for the platform. As such, Texas Instruments was left with the choice of either writing their own compatible Python interpreter or, rather lazily, bodging it with an adapter like the "cube".
The specs of the cube have been known for a while now: an Atmel SAMD21E18A-U inside serving as the Python processor. This chip, in Atmel's increasingly popular SAMD21 range has 32 pins, 256KB of Flash memory, and 32KB of RAM. These specs are perfect for the adapter, offering enough space for Micropython and its modules, enough RAM for writing more complex programs, and 32 pins is fine for this closed off adapter (though it wouldn't have hurt to add some external pins, TI). More importantly than these specs, however, is the existence of solid toolchains for both the Atmel SAM chips and ARM microcontrollers in general, allowing them to easily compile Micropython.
Recently, however, Adafruit, corroborating a post from TI planet has confirmed that their Python interpreter, CircuitPython, is running on the TI-Python adapter. CircuitPython is a fork of MicroPython designed by Adafruit to be more hobbyist-oriented, working to provide better libraries for all sorts of peripherals (many of which they carry in their store
). This information was found when someone who had received a TI-Python cube imported the sys module, which contains various details about the interpreter and system, and saw that the implementation field was listed as running CircuitPython 3.0.0. Soon after this was found by the folks at TI-Planet, Adafruit caught wind of its use as well as the general existence of the TI-Python adapter and made a quick blog post mostly filled with images of the module. All of this culminates in Adafruit's latest video in their Python on hardware! series, where Adafruit's Founder, Limor Fried (better known as "ladyada") mentions that they were surprised about the use of the CircuitPython in the adapter. Unfortunately, Adafruit seems to misunderstand what the adapter really means, stating that it makes it so that they aren't stuck with a calculator that's "harder to update" or that it would help it work with peripherals. Ultimately, we won't know why TI picked CircuitPython rather than MicroPython (maybe they thought the name was cooler or saw the tagline that said it was meant for "teaching coding") but it appears that Texas Instruments has not contributed to the open-source CircuitPython project in any capacity or communicated with Adafruit in any way.
TL;DR: Following the discovery of the TI-Python adapter's usage of Adafruit's fork of Micropython known as CircuitPython, Adafruit, in both blog post and video, confirm it and show their surprise. While it's unknown why TI chose CircuitPython instead of the more popular MicroPython, Adafruit also confirms that they have had no contact with TI and there is no evidence of TI contributing to the CircuitPython project.
This adapter actually runs the Python interpreter while the TI-83 Premium CE, the French equivalent of the 84+ CE (because France is the most competitive market and that's why they are rolling it out in the first place), using an application called PyAdaptr, acts as a sort of thin client that shows the interpreter's REPL. For all calculators with Python before the TI-83PCE, Micropython, an open-source Python interpreter built for microcontrollers, was used. It was speculated that TI was unable to get Micropython running on the eZ80 CPU used by the 83PCE (and, by extension, the 84PCE) because of the lack of sufficient C compiler for the platform. As such, Texas Instruments was left with the choice of either writing their own compatible Python interpreter or, rather lazily, bodging it with an adapter like the "cube".
The specs of the cube have been known for a while now: an Atmel SAMD21E18A-U inside serving as the Python processor. This chip, in Atmel's increasingly popular SAMD21 range has 32 pins, 256KB of Flash memory, and 32KB of RAM. These specs are perfect for the adapter, offering enough space for Micropython and its modules, enough RAM for writing more complex programs, and 32 pins is fine for this closed off adapter (though it wouldn't have hurt to add some external pins, TI). More importantly than these specs, however, is the existence of solid toolchains for both the Atmel SAM chips and ARM microcontrollers in general, allowing them to easily compile Micropython.
Recently, however, Adafruit, corroborating a post from TI planet has confirmed that their Python interpreter, CircuitPython, is running on the TI-Python adapter. CircuitPython is a fork of MicroPython designed by Adafruit to be more hobbyist-oriented, working to provide better libraries for all sorts of peripherals (many of which they carry in their store
). This information was found when someone who had received a TI-Python cube imported the sys module, which contains various details about the interpreter and system, and saw that the implementation field was listed as running CircuitPython 3.0.0. Soon after this was found by the folks at TI-Planet, Adafruit caught wind of its use as well as the general existence of the TI-Python adapter and made a quick blog post mostly filled with images of the module. All of this culminates in Adafruit's latest video in their Python on hardware! series, where Adafruit's Founder, Limor Fried (better known as "ladyada") mentions that they were surprised about the use of the CircuitPython in the adapter. Unfortunately, Adafruit seems to misunderstand what the adapter really means, stating that it makes it so that they aren't stuck with a calculator that's "harder to update" or that it would help it work with peripherals. Ultimately, we won't know why TI picked CircuitPython rather than MicroPython (maybe they thought the name was cooler or saw the tagline that said it was meant for "teaching coding") but it appears that Texas Instruments has not contributed to the open-source CircuitPython project in any capacity or communicated with Adafruit in any way.
TL;DR: Following the discovery of the TI-Python adapter's usage of Adafruit's fork of Micropython known as CircuitPython, Adafruit, in both blog post and video, confirm it and show their surprise. While it's unknown why TI chose CircuitPython instead of the more popular MicroPython, Adafruit also confirms that they have had no contact with TI and there is no evidence of TI contributing to the CircuitPython project.
) but rather what those engineers had to come up with having probably an extremely low target BoM for the board etc, because all this is a "quick" (and extremely probably temporary) reaction to try not to lose market share rather stupidly by being the only ones left in early 2019 in the calculator market (in France anyway) not having Python on their main calculator.
