DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments TI-30X Pro MultiView™
Date of introduction: | May 2010 Available: Sep. 1, 2010 Withdrawn: Oct. 2010 |
Display technology: | LCD dot matrix |
New price: | €27.99 | Display size: | 4 * 16 characters (5 * 19 for menus) |
Size: | 6.8" x 3.2" x 0.6" 172 x 83 x 15 mm³ |
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Weight: | 4.2 ounces, 120 grams | Serial No: | |
Batteries: | Solar cells + CR2032 | Date of manufacture: | mth 06 year 2010 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | China (K) | |
Precision: | 13 | Integrated circuits: | |
Logic: | EOS - 8 Pending Operations, 23 () | ||
Memories: | 8 | ||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
Texas Instruments announced in May 2007 with the TI-30XS MultiView the successor of its long lasting TI-30X IIS introduced already in 1999 and slightly redesigned in 2004. In February 2008 followed with the TI-34 MultiView and TI-Collège Plus the successors of the TI-34 II resp. TI-Collège. And another two years later, in May 2010, we heard about the TI-30X Pro MultiView and thought immediately about the TI-36X II. We received the first actual calculator in October 2010 and have to admit: This scientific calculator is the real successor of the TI-68! Even the keyboard is similar cluttered, but the new multi-tap feature avoids at least a [3rd] or even [4th] key to access the zillions of functions implemented in the single-chip calculator circuit.
Instead of the then novel 2-line display
the TI-30X Pro MultiView 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.
In addition to this
so called "MathPrint" mode the calculator sports a TI-30X IIS
compatible "Classic" mode.
Compared with the original TI-30X IIS, in the US the
quasi-standard for pupils, we notice a huge variety of functions:
• Classic (compatible with TI-36X II) and MathPrint Mode |
Dismantling this TI-30X
Pro MultiView manufactured in June 2010 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. The prominent SR-21 designation on the main PCB proves that this calculator was manufactured by Kinpo Electronics,
Inc., a famous company located in Taiwan and doing
calculator production for well established companies like Texas Instruments, Hewlett Packard, Casio,
Canon and Citizen.
Texas Instruments announced the TI-30X Pro MultiView in May 2010 in some European countries and it finally hit the shelves in September 2010. Only a few weeks later, early in October 2010, the German website of Texas Instruments' calculator division announced an important information for customers of the calculator. The 2-page document describes a serious problems of the new equation solver and a minor problem with the Planck's constant. Good for the Datamath Calculator Museum - we received the featured calculator early in October with the help of a friend visiting Austria before the shelves were emptied again. Thanks, Namir!
The TI-30X Pro MV features different "Solvers", a numeric equation solver and a polynomial solver for quadratic or cubic equations. Wikipedia (German division) reported already on September 24, 2010 a problem with the cubic equation solver with a very simple example:
[2nd]
[poly-solv] [2]: ax³+bx²+cx+d=0
with a=2, b=1, c=-1, and d=0 reports three solutions:
x1=0.5, x2=-1, and x3=2.
The correct answer is x1=0.5, x2=-1, and x3=0!
The TI-30X Pro MV stores for 20 physical constants both NAMES and UNITS. The Planck's constant, denoted h, sports two errors: The name of Max Planck, one of the founders of quantum theory, is spelled Plank in the English manual and the unit is given in Joule per second (J/s) instead of Joule seconds (Js) on the calculator.
[2nd]
[constants] [3]:
Relaunch
The re-launch of the TI-30X Pro MultiView was delayed several times but in April 2011 the calculator was at least in Germany back in the shelves. A few weeks later in May 2011 an almost identical calculator was marketed in the United States as TI-36X Pro. And yes, the bugs are fixed. Don't miss the TI-30X Plus MultiView with another "bug".
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.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, October 22, 2010. No reprints without written permission.