Texas Instruments TI-30X Prio MathPrint™

Texas Instruments announced on February 20, 2018 at the didacta 2018, an Education Trade Show in Germany, with the TI-30X Plus MathPrint and TI-30X Pro MathPrint the stylish successors of both the TI-30X Plus MultiView and TI-30X Pro MultiView.

It is rather unusual to discontinue and replace a scientific calculator within just three years after its introduction but in this case there was a serious reason behind the unexpected move from Texas Instruments. In July 2017 the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of Baden Wurttemberg, Germany informed all schools in the State that it is known since March 2017 to "hack" with a few keystrokes the TI-30X Plus MultiView and upgrade it to the original TI-30X Pro MultiView. One has to understand that the TI-30X Plus MultiView was removing some features from the original TI-30X Pro MultiView:

The reason for this down-grading are pretty obvious - two States in Germany (Bavaria and Baden Wurttemberg) don't allow these features in their High Schools exams anymore. Texas Instruments consequently informed in Summer 2017 to release an updated version of the TI-30X Plus MultiView for Back-to-School 2018/2019.

Comparing the original TI-30X Pro MultiView with its successor reveals three major differences:

And in 2023 the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Federal States of Germany released a new ruling taking effect for the Abitur 2030 and many common features won't be accepted for the State Tests:

As of today only 3 calculator meet these tight requirements:

The new LC Display of the TI-30X Prio MathPrint sports a resolution of 64 * 192 addressable pixels compared to 31 * 96 pixels of its predecessor allowing a much nicer font for both numbers and characters. Interesting trivia: Texas Instruments' first graphing calculator, the TI-81 introduced in 1990, featured only 64 * 96 pixels.

The "MathPrint" mode displays equations as they would be printed in a text book while the "Classic" mode emulates the TI-30X IIS calculators.

Texas Instruments introduced with the TI-30X Pro MathPrint a new feature for a Scientific calculator - obviously initiated by the "hack" of the TI-30X Plus MultiView: Pressing the [reset] button displays immediately the current Operating System version of the calculator. The TI-30X Prio MathPrint duplicates this behavior, too.

Dismantling this TI-30X Prio MathPrint manufactured in July 2023 in China reveals a pretty common construction with two printed circuit boards (PCBs). The main PCB hides the single-chip calculating circuit under a small protection blob of black epoxy and drives the graphing display with a heat sealed fine-pitch connector. The keyboard makes use of a much simpler second PCB and a heat sealed connector, too.

While we expected with this TI-30X Prio MathPrint the prominent SR-36 designation on the main PCB known from its sibling TI-30X Plus MultiView and TI-30X Pro MultiView manufactured by Kinpo Electronics, Inc., did the backside of the calculator with its Date code N-0723A proof that it was manufactured by Nam Tai Electonics, Inc.. Consequently sports the PCB a completely different design.

The featured calculator was purchased in December 2023 in Germany with an Online Shop and was delivered in a simple cardboard box, most likely bulk packaging for schools.

As of February 2024 the TI-30X Prio MathPrint was featured on TI's website only for Germany while the TI-30X Pro MathPrint was featured for the following countries: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

The TI-30X Plus MathPrint was featured only for Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

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

© Joerg Woerner, February 18, 2024. No reprints without written permission.