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Texas Instruments Phoenix 1 (Engineering Validation Tests 1)

Date of introduction:	(May 12, 2006)	Display technology:	LCD dot matrix 16-level greyscale
New price:		Display size:	240 * 320 pixels
Size:	7.9" x 3.9" x 0.85" 200 x 100 x 22 mm³
Weight:	8.8 ounces, 250 grams	Serial No:	P1-EVT1-B-0118
Batteries:	4*AAA	Date of manufacture:	mth 02 year 2006
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:
Precision:	14	Integrated circuits:	CPU: TI-OMAP NP31AZZG SDRAM: HYB18L256160 Flash: SST 39VF400A, ST NAND256W3A Display: Novatek NT7702H, 2*xxx
Memories:
Program steps:	20M Bytes, 16M Bytes Flash ROM	Courtesy of:	Joerg Woerner

Texas Instruments filed already October 24, 2003 in Europe a patent application for a stylus based calculator and since the publication of the granted patent EP1424626 in June 2004 there are rumors about a new graphing calculator. The patent itself describes a then novel method of entering data with a stylus into graphing software applications. The sketch of the suggested design of the new calculator reminds us immediately to a failed development project nicknamed PET by the marketing department of Texas Instruments. We discovered in 2007 one of the rare prototypes labeled TI-PLT.

The Phoenix 1 obviously lacks a stylus and seems to trace back to another root than the "PDA-based graphing calculator", a hype started early in this millennium with the Hewlett Packard Xpander. This Windows CE based calculator looked like a PDA with a 240 * 320 pixel gray-scale touch screen, a small numeric keypad and the stylus. Hewlett Packard canceled the project February 2001 with just a few prototypes left to the disappointed market. Dismantling one of the prototypes revealed a design centered around a Hitachi SH3 RISC-Processor, 8M Bytes of RAM and 16M Bytes of ROM.

Japanese calculator company Casio was more successful and introduced in 2002 the ClassPad 300 with a 160 * 240 pixel gray-scale touch screen supporting a lot of stylus based operation like drag-and-drop. This design makes use of the Hitachi SH7291 - a SH3 based RISC-Processor, 0.5M Bytes of RAM and 4M Bytes Flash ROM.

The ClassPad 300 Plus introduced in 2005 makes use of a much improved display with higher contrast and better readability under low lighting conditions.

This early Phoenix 1 prototype, later known as TI-Nspire CAS+, with the serial number P1-EVT1-B-0118 was used for Engineering Validation Tests (EVT - learn more about the Five Engineering Stages). At first glance does it look very similar to the final TI-Nspire CAS device, but we observe some differences with the TI-Nspire CAS introduced in July 2007:

• The color scheme is completely different
• The cursor control makes use of inner and outer keys
• Some function keys have different positions

Please notice that the evaluation of the Phoenix 1 led to multiple generations of TI-Nspire CAS+ Prototypes with different designs and color schemes and keyboard layout. Interesting to learn that these samples were labeled TI-Nspire CAS+ but still sported the "Phoenix" project name on the printed circuit boards (PCBs). Please notice this press release dated May 12, 2006 announcing the New Zealand introduction of the TI-nspire™ CAS+.

Don't miss the TI-Nspire+ manufactured in May 2006.

Architecture: Dismantling this Phoenix 1 prototype reveals an internal design somewhere between the PLT-SHH1 prototype based on the sophisticated POMAP1509E and the ZEVIO architecture of the final TI-Nspire CAS. Learn more about the Hardware Architecture of TI’s Graphing Calculators.

Processor: The OMAP™ processor of the Phoenix 1 prototype is labeled TI-OMAP NP31AZZG. We assume that this tiny chip is actually a System-on-Chip based on the OMAP5912 architecture from Texas Instruments hosting a ARM9 32-bit RISC processor clocked at 78 MHz and a TMS320C55xx Digital Signal Processor core.

Memory: The Phoenix 1 prototype makes use of three different memory chips:

• NOR Flash-ROM
• NAND Flash-ROM
• SDRAM

The disassembled Phoenix 1 prototype (Manufactured February 2006) features one SST 39VF400A NOR Flash-ROM, manufactured by Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. with a 256k*16 bits organization and one ST NAND256W3A NAND Flash-ROM with 32M Bytes size.

The program and data memory of the disassembled Phoenix 1 consists of one Infinion HYB18L256160 SDRAM with 16M*16 bits capacity.

Please notice that all three memory chips are almost identical with the parts located in the released TI-Nspire CAS with the April 2007 manufacturing date. The only difference is the supply voltage, it was lowered from 3.3 volts to 1.8 volts.

Display: The Phoenix 1 uses a high-contrast display with a resolution of 240 * 320 pixels, a huge improvement over the TI-89 Titanium with 100 * 160 pixels or the Voyage 200 with 128 * 240 pixels. The large 16-level grey-scale displays includes a novel split screen capability with up to 4 views.

The driver circuit of the LC-Display is compromised of 2 column driver and one row driver manufactured by Novatek, Taiwan. We located a NT7702H row-driver as bare chip mounted on a flexible piece of circuit board attached between the display and a PCB and two unknown column drivers.

ROM-Versions:

• Phoenix 1 (Engineering Validation Tests P1-EVT1-B-0118)

U-Boot 1.1.2 (January 23, 2006)
Phoenix Built (February 14, 2006)
System Built (February 15, 2006)

Information provided by Xavier Andréani.

• Phoenix 1 Computer Link Software for Windows

t.b.d.

If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.