A source from Texas Instruments has given us some additional information on the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition calculator, and officially confirmed some specs that an anonymous TI source had shared with us. On a page about the TI-84+CSE that has just been unveiled, TI reveals technical specifications (all confirmations of information we had already collected), FAQs about the calculator and its operating system, a comparison chart to the TI-84+ (non-color) Silver Edition and the TI-Npire CX, and a gallery. Among the most salient points that this page reveals:

:: As we reported, the TI-84+CSE will have 3.5MB of user-accessible Flash and 21KB of user-accessible RAM.
:: The device will have a rechargeable battery good for 5 days of classroom use or 2 weeks of homework use. To us, this implies 5 to 10 hours of use on a single charge.
:: The calculator can exchange data with earlier calculator using unit-to-unit link cables.
:: The TI-84+CSE supports both TI-BASIC and ASM, although my sources confirm that all ASM programs and some TI-BASIC programs will not be compatible from previous versions.
:: TI-Connect will be getting a much-needed upgrade, at least repairing Mac OS X support and hopefully also resolving issues with Direct USB transfers.
:: The calculator will support "MathPrint everywhere" and will remain accepted on the SAT, ACT, and other standardized tests.

Be sure to rifle through the new page on the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, examine the FAQs and technical specifications, ooh and aah over the gallery, and continue guessing what kind of processor this new calculator may have. Our sources are still unable to confirm the processor or the programming differences, but as soon as that information is publicly available, you can be sure we'll be bringing it to you. What do you want to know about this new calculator? Be sure to tell us in the attached discussion; we might even be able to find out for you.

In addition, an official press release on the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition will be rolling out some time in early January, so keep your fingers crossed until then. And of course, as soon as we have our hands on a review calculator, you'll be getting the A to Z on the TI-84+CSE, inside and out.

More Information
Cemetech's complete reference guide to the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition
Texas Instruments' page on the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition

i think we should see about life extenders for this. 5-10 hours may be a bit generous.

What do you mean, generous? Do you mean that you expect it to be less than that, or that 5-10 hours is not enough? I agree that it's on the low side.

given my experiences with batteries before now, i do expect it to be less than that. but suprise me, ive been wrong before

It does seem a bit low. I love how they specifically mentioned ASM support
EDIT: Also, 21k RAM? The 83+ had a solid 24k (and the 82/83 even more, something like 29k).

hmm. they say it has Z80 support--suggests "Emulated"???

Where do you see "z80 support"? I only see "supports [...] ASM". We have no indication that it won't have a z80 yet.

oh. gotta slow down as i read.

I wonder if there will still be a limit on executable code or not. Having so little RAM now that the display is much larger (and 8 pixels won't fit into 1 byte) seems like a pretty big handicap. I can't wait til someone gets an actual calc to play with.

if we can makme 16 gigs in a tiny MicroSD, how come we cant get 128 megabytes of ram? the simplest programs may end up super huge if TI doesnt fix this issue.

Because MicroSD isn't RAM. In fact, Flash Memory isn't RAM.

Flash Memory is slower and can only sustain so many reads and writes, which is why you can get a 16GB SD card for $25 and 16GB's of RAM for 90.

Don't worry; I'm working hard on that.

LuxenD: Exactly what comic said. RAM is faster but volatile (it needs power to maintain it). It has no practical limit to its write/read/erase cycles. Flash is slower but non-volatile. It has to be erased in blocks, not bytes. It has a limit to how many times it can be re-written before it fails.

News item translated to French and relayed to TI-Planet: http://ti-pla.net/t10933

i was talking about how the advancements in technology would allow for so small storage as that, why cant ram also be getting smaller. i know how ram and flash are different.

It is getting smaller, you're absolutely right. What it's not doing is getting exponentially cheaper. Of course, 8GB of RAM costs what 128MB of RAM cost fourteen years ago, so there's no financial excuse for the low RAM of TI's calculators. However. Remember, the z80 has a 64KB address space, so the available user RAM (without a complete OS rewrite) has to be less than 64KB. Page 0 has to be ROM Page 0, leaving us 48KB or less of RAM. We also need some OS software loaded on Page 1, so we can have 32KB or fewer of RAM. And subtract all of the system variables, graph buffer, VAT, stack, Symbol Table, and you're left with 21KB. Could TI swap in other RAM pages in a scheme to give you much more RAM? Absolutely. Would it require re-writing many things? Unfortunately, yes.

Clearly this should be a TI-86+. That already does 24-bit addressing where it's useful with large amounts of memory, so it would basically just need Flash support added.

I agree, the 86 really hit a sweet spot when it comes to functionality IMO. Plus the wider screen allowed for what I feel is a much nicer UI. And as Tari said, AHL FTW!

Eh, that battery life is depressing, but at least it's chargeable. I personally prefer the (what seems to be) 250 hour battery life of the Prizm, even if it's not built around being rechargeable.

1993: 28.7 KB (TI-82)
2013: 21.7 KB (TI-84PCSE)
2033: 14.7 KB (next gen 84+ model )
2053: 7.7 KB (even more next gen 84+ model)
2073: 0.7 KB



The good thing though is that the more limited it is, the better the entertainment generated from pushing its limits.

Only 21kb of ram? why not even more? like 32kb usable?