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Texas Instruments TI-Collège Plus

Date of introduction:	May 9, 2007 Available: Feb. 21, 2008	Display technology:	LCD dot matrix
New price:		Display size:	4 * 16 characters (5 * 19 for menus)
Size:	6.5" x 3.1" x 0.6" 166 x 79 x 16 mm³
Weight:	3.7 ounces, 104 grams	Serial No:
Batteries:	CR2032	Date of manufacture:	mth 01 year 2008
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:	China (N)
Precision:	13	Integrated circuits:	Toshiba JT6F54
Memories:	7
Program steps:		Courtesy of:	Joerg Woerner

Texas Instruments introduced in February 2008 with the TI-Collège Plus the successor of its TI-Collège introduced already in 2005 as the first calculator with keys (e.g. ANNUL), notations and even the menus in French to simplify the use by younger students.

Due to some design problems with the calculator it took until February 2008 before the TI-Collège Plus arrived together with the TI-34 MultiView finally in the store shelves. Don't miss one of the pre-series TI-Collège Plus and a very early Prototype of the TI-Collège Plus used for Engineering Validation Tests

Instead of the then novel 2-line display the TI-Collège Plus features a dot matrix display with 31 * 96 addressable pixels allowing the calculator to display equations as they would be printed in a text book.

The TI-Collège Plus is the first calculator in the new MultiView series sporting for the "mode menue" a total of 5 lines by 19 characters on the small graphing screen. Both the TI-30XS MultiView and the TI-34 MultiView used just 4 lines.

In addition to this so called "AFFNATUREL / MathPrint" mode the calculator sports a TI-Collège compatible "AFFLIGNE / Classic" mode.

Compared with the original TI-Collège, we notice some major improvements:

• AFFLIGNE (compatible with TI-Collège) and AFFNATUREL Mode
• EOS with 8 pending operations and 23 levels of parentheses
• 7 memory variables x, y, z, t, a, b, c
• Data editor and list formulas: 3 lists, each up to 42 items
• Function table
• Toggle key fractions and decimals
• Equation entries up to 80 digits

Dismantling the TI-Collège Plus reveals a pretty common construction with two printed circuit boards (PCBs). The main PCB hides the Toshiba JT6F54 single-chip calculater 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. The featured calculator was manufactured by Nam Tai Electronics, Inc ., a well-known company with OEM calculator production facilities in Shenzhen, China.

Manufacturing of the TI-Collège Plus was shifted in 2011 from one contract manufacturer in China to another company and the design was slightly revised.

Stokes Publishing Company, Inc. based in Sunnyvale, California sold a companion for the teacher, view the wonderful TI-Collège Plus Overhead Calculator.

Don't miss the battery powered TI-30XB MultiView and its solar-cells operated sibling TI-30XS MultiView sold since July 2007 and the close relative TI-34 MultiView.

Texas Instruments announced on March 1^st, 2010 the TI-84 Plus Operating System version 2.53MP with MathPrint™ mode for free download. The OS 2.53MP enables users to input and view math symbols and formulas, including stacked fractions, in their handhelds exactly as the equations appear in textbooks.

The TI-Collège Plus was replaced in 2013 with the TI-Collège Plus Solaire.

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