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Texas Instruments TI-80

Date of introduction:  February 1995 Display technology:  LCD dot matrix
New price:   Display size:  8 * 16 characters
Size:  6.4" x 2.8" x 0.60"
 162 x 72 x 15 mm3
   
Weight:  3.7 ounces, 106 grams Serial No:  34008214
Batteries:  2*CR2032 (35mA) Date of manufacture:  mth 12 year 1996 (C)
AC-Adapter:   Origin of manufacture:  Taiwan (I)
Precision:  13 Integrated circuits:  CPU: Toshiba T6M53A
 ROM: LH5359©1995
 RAM: SRM2264
 Display: Toshiba T6B79
Memories:  0-27    
Program steps:  7,034 Bytes Courtesy of:  Joerg Woerner

TI-80_Display.jpg (174864 Byte)The TI-80 followed the famous TI-81 and removed some mathematical and graphing functions. The size of the display was decreased to 48 * 64 pixel for 8 lines of 16 characters, each. The resulting 5*3 pixel font proofed to be very difficult to read. Don't miss the TI-10 and TI-15 calculators introduced in 1999/2000 with a similar font. 


TI-80_PCB.jpg (331360 Byte)TI-80_Back.jpg (181662 Byte)Another disadvantage of the slim TI-80 is the power supply. Instead of four AAA-sized standard batteries plus an additional back-up battery found in most TI graphing calculators, this TI-80 uses two very expensive CR2032 Lithium batteries.

The main features of the TI-80 VSC in a short summary:

Graphing of up to 4 functions at one time.
Parametric graphing to analyze up to three parametric equations.
One- and two-variable statistical analyses with up to 99 data points.
Up to 37 programs with a total of 7,000 bytes.

TI-80_PCBM.jpg (282830 Byte)From a technical point of view the TI-80 combines the 8-bit hardware architecture known from the Financial Investment Analyst FIA-10 and the enhanced capabilities from the TI-95 Procalc. Learn more about the Hardware Architecture of TI’s Graphing Calculators. The TI-80 uses just four main components:

Texas Instruments / Toshiba proprietary microprocessor
Sharp LH5359©1995 - 64k Bytes Mask ROM for internal program storage
Suwa Seikosha SRM2264 - 8k Bytes SRAM for user program and data
Toshiba T6B79 - display driver

TI-80_ASIC_Z6.jpg (264860 Byte)The electronics of the TI-80 is centered around the Toshiba T6M53A Application Specific CPU, an ASIC with both an unknown microprocessor and the necessary glue logic to scan the keyboard and control the two different memory chips and the display driver.

TI-80_PCBD.jpg (85786 Byte)The graphic display of the TI-80 is connected to a Toshiba T6B79 single-chip display driver mounted on a flexible printed circuit board.

A special "teacher version" called TI-80 VSC combines the standard TI-80 features with a port to connect to a ViewScreen panel via a cable. Placing the panel on the overhead projector enlarges the image of the handheld screen so that each student can follow along.

In 1998 the TI-80 was replaced with the TI-73 sporting an increased display size of 64 * 96 dots for better readable characters and crisper graphs.

ROM-Versions:

TI-80_I1295_OS.jpg (37174 Byte)3.0
4.0

You can check the ROM version of your TI-80 using the following key sequence and reading the number on your screen:

[MODE] [ALPHA] [S]

Information provided by ticalc.org and Xavier Andréani.

Exam acceptance:

The TI-80 is permitted (as of September 27, 2007) for use on SAT, ACT, PSAT and AP exams but is not recommended for the AP exam.  


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

© Joerg Woerner, December 5, 2001. No reprints without written permission.