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Texas Instruments TI-80 ViewScreen™

Date of introduction:  March 1995 Display technology:  LCD dot matrix
New price:   Display size:  8 * 16 characters
Size:  6.4" x 2.8" x 0.95"
 162 x 72 x 24 mm3
   
Weight:  4.6 ounces, 130 grams Serial No:  VS 064528
Batteries:  2*CR2032 (35mA) Date of manufacture:  mth 06 year 1995 (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-80VSC_Back.jpg (169522 Byte)The TI-80 ViewScreen Calculator (VSC) is the teacher version of the standard TI-80. It connects with a special port 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. Don't miss the first generation TI-81 VSC permanently connected to a much smaller Panel.

Four ViewScreen panels were available in 2008:

Panel 1: TI-73 VSC, TI-73 Explorer VSC, TI-80 VSC, TI-82 VSC, TI-83 VSC,
   TI-83 Plus VSC, TI-83 Plus Silver Edition VSC, TI-84 Plus VSC,
   TI-84 Plus Silver Edition VSC
Panel 2: TI-89 VSC, TI-89 Titanium VSC, TI-92, TI-92 Plus, Voyage 200
Panel 3: TI-85 VSC (2nd design), TI-86 VSC
Panel 4: TI-Nspire, TI-Nspire CAS, TI-Nspire Touchpad, TI-Nspire CAS Touchpad

TI-80VSC_PCB.jpg (542555 Byte)From a technical point of view the TI-80 VSC is almost identical with the students TI-80. The main difference you notice is a bulgier bottom shell of the calculator housing to accommodate the ViewScreen electronics and connector. Dismantling the TI-80 VSC reveals a small printed circuit board (PCB) with two driver chips connected with a flexible cable to the main PCB of the calculator.

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-80VSC_PCBM.jpg (265878 Byte)From a technical point of view the TI-80 VSC 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 VSC 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-80VSC_ASIC_Z6.jpg (264454 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-80VSC_PCBD.jpg (87418 Byte)The graphic display of the TI-80 VSC is connected to a Toshiba T6B79 single-chip display driver mounted on a flexible printed circuit board.

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 VSC 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 VSC 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, February 17, 2009. No reprints without written permission.