Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum, but I met some of the guys who run this forum at Makerfaire and was super interested in what they were doing. Right now I'm writing a research paper that goes in depth into the hardware break down of the TI-83 Plus, and was wondering if you guys might be able to help me out a bit with the price tags of each hardware component in the TI-83. So far this is what I have:

8-bit Z-80 Microprocessor (I know the one in the TI-83 is TI-specifc)- $20
Application-specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) TI-REF TI-738X - $???
HD44780 LCD and Driver - $12 (this might not be for the wrong model and/or screen dimension)
512kb Flash ROM - $5
32kb RAM $???
Plastic Casing and Buttons - $6
TOTAL - $43

I basically just looked up each component on google to see if I could find the average price, but obviously some of the components were hard to google (e.g. the ASIC TI-738X, because its TI-made). So if you guys have any good resources to find the price tags for any or all of these hardware pieces, or have things to add to the list, please let me know. Basically I'm trying to figure out the overall manufacturing cost that TI sees in making a TI-83 Plus.

Thanks guys!

Also, its very likely that the google results for the prices of these things were off, so any revisions are greatly appreciated on the price tag front as well.

Your estimates are probably very high. Just some offhand guesses..

• Z80: $0.25
  
• TI ASIC: $0.50
  
• T6A04 + LCD: $4
  
• 4 Mb Flash: $1
  
• 32k SRAM: $1
  
• PCB: $2
  
• Case: $2

Given they manufacture these things by the millions, the economies of scale are very favorable. Total parts cost is likely under $10, especially since they've been building these things mostly unchanged for a long time.

Great, thanks so much Tari. Wow I didn't realize the parts were THAT cheap! Do you have any resources that I could possibly cite on those figures? I just need to have some sort of reference. Perhaps a site like Alibaba for electronic parts?

Now you know why Lionel Debroux always get pissed at TI.

Just to provide a counterpoint, don't forget the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars a year that they spend in professional development to teach teachers how to teach with TI technology. Obviously this drives their sales even more when teachers direct their students to buy TI calculators, but they are making a solid and sincere effort to promote STEM eduction, in my opinion.

They're mostly off-the-cuff numbers. You can get some idea of upper limits by looking at (reputable) distributors.

Glancing at Digikey, I see a few parts.

• Z80: $3.00 @ 320 qty
  
• Flash: $0.95 @ 5000 qty
  
• RAM: $0.94 @ 1000 qty
  
• Display module: $7.94 @ qty 500

Recall that TI are probably buying millions of parts at a time, so these numbers are upper limits on what TI pay for the parts. The actual cost is likely appreciably lower.

The display and CPU costs look a bit high, but given the ones I point at are pre-built and fairly small quantities respectively, they seem reasonable. Expect TI's costs for each of those to be less than half as much as I found. In the case of the display, they probably buy the LCD and controller from the manufacturers independently in a custom design, which would be significantly cheaper.

As for the other parts, they're custom and it's very hard to come up with an accurate number. I plugged some (mostly made-up) numbers into the quote generator at Advanced Circuits and got about $13 per PCB when ordering 50 units (which is the maximum value it'll give me; anything more it says "call for price").

With these custom parts, the largest cost is setup. Again considering that TI make millions of these things, the non-recurring setup costs (tooling, engineering) are hugely amortized. If we consider the price drop on boards (again as quoted by Advanced Circuits) from 5 units ($73 each) to 50 units ($13 each), we can see how fast that actually drops off. Expect similar economics with the case (injection-molded) and ASIC (custom silicon, but TI own a lot of semiconductor manufacturing facilities).

Have you tried contacting Texas instruments?

Interesting discussion here. The cost to manufacture (excluding research and development and the augmentive product as Kerm mentioned) is always going to be comparatively low. Particularly when they have made millions of these units.

The final sale price reflects what the market will stand and is commensurate with TI's standing in the technology sector and also a reflection of what the customer would expect to pay for a quality product.

Another similar argument might be:

"Why does Microsoft never release old versions of it's software for a residual price for low end users ?" or "Why does AutoDesk charge thousands for a CAD package when others are making it for free?"

That would absolutely be a dead end. A company would never reveal such a price breakdown to the market in general, not to mention the use that their competitors could make of such information.

Tari thanks so much. I did a little bit of my own research on digikey and found similar prices. I definitely wouldnt doubt that those numbers are a bit high, but its definitely necessary for me to have somewhere to point to when claiming these are the costs. Thanks again for putting in the time to get those costs, I really appreciate it. The paper is wrapping up well, so I will let you all know when its done.

Also, Kerm, do you think a majority of the profit that TI makes from selling these calculators goes into T^3 and other development programs for teacher/students? Using the numbers I found from here, I've calculated that TI is making a marginal profit of close to 70-80% from selling these things.

Well, I wouldn't say a "majority". They are still a for-profit company, and while TI Education is a tiny fraction of Texas Instruments' total business, I'm sure they still do turn a tidy profit. On the one hand, I appreciate their philanthropy in terms of supporting STEM education, but on the other hand, I understand the business importance of actually churning a decent profit.