Assignment # 3_TI-89 Evolution

There are few products we own that do not have an integrated circuit (IC) within. Computers, televisions, video games, telephones are the obvious one’s. Even my car has IC to control its ignition and coordinate its various operations. It wasn't always this way. In the 1960's IC makers actually had trouble getting companies to use their products. The fact that integrated circuits really were just recently invented and were unproven technology had a lot to do with it. IC's very high cost versus the much cheaper and known-reliable discrete components like transistors, diodes, and resistors were another key factor.
In this era, when integrated circuit technology would take off, but Texas Instruments wasn't satisfied with waiting around. In 1965 Texas Instrument engineering team were on a project that was the turning point for electronic calculators. TI Lab members began work on a hand-held calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide, yet still fit in the palm of your hand.
In 1972, TI-2500 also called “DataMath” was the first commercial calculator brought in to the market by Texas Instruments.

Next revolutionary step in the calculator history was SR-10 which was capable of performing reciprocals, squares and square roots more quickly and more accurately than classical slide rules calculators. Many other calculators came in the same timeline of 1970’s like SR-50, SR-52, SR-5040 and TI kept their promise of keeping up with the demanding technology changes. TI-59 was the first of the series of programmable calculators.
In 1987, TI-12 also called Math Explorer was introduced. The first TI calculator designed with the help of teachers. Especially for elementary and middle-school classroom use, the Math Explorer combines the utility of a four-function calculator with powerful fraction functionality.
Ti-68 was developed as an advanced scientific calculator for college students and professionals in math, science and engineering. It performs 254 functions including 40 complex-number functions; solves up to five simultaneous equations; calculates the real and complex roots of quadratic, cubic and quadratic equations. It was very powerful and easy-to-use calculator of late 1980’s.
In 1990, Ti – 81 was launched as first graphing calculator. It made all the functions easier to explore and conceptualize.
In this decade Texas Instrument launched many other revolutionary calculators.
· TI-82 was like the TI-81 but with network connections.
· TI-83 had all the features of TI-82 with the additional features of stats analysis procedures. TI-83 included many features, including function graphing, polar/parametric graphing modes, statistics, trigonometric, and algebraic functions. The TI-83 was the first calculator in the TI series to have built in assembly language support.
· In 1992, TI-85 was launched as second graphing calculator. The TI-85 was significantly more powerful than the TI-81, as it was designed as a calculator primarily for use in engineering and calculus courses.
· TI-86 was launched in 1997 and can be thought of as the tier among various Texas Instruments calculators directly above the TI-83 and TI-84 line. In addition to having a larger screen than the TI-83, the TI-86 also allowed the user to type in lower case and Greek letters and features five softkeys, which improved menu navigation and can be programmed by the user for quick access to common operations such as decimal-to-fraction conversion. The calculator also handles vectors, matrices and complex numbers better than the TI-83.
· TI replaced the TI-83 with the TI-83 Plus calculator in 1999, which included Flash ROM, enabling the device's operating system to be updated if needed, or for large new Flash Applications to be stored, accessible through a new Apps key. The Flash ROM can also be used to store user programs and data.
· In 2001 the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition was released, which featured approximately nine times the available Flash ROM and over twice the processing speed (15 MHz) of a standard TI-83 Plus.
· The TI-84 Plus series was introduced in April 2004 as a further update to the TI-83 series. Despite the new appearance, they are not vastly superior to the TI-83 Plus series. The main improvements of the TI-84 Edition were a fancier case, new built in functions, more speed and memory over the TI-83, a built-in clock, and built-in USB port connectivity. The TI-84 Plus has 3 times the memory of the TI-83 Plus, and the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition has 9 times the memory of the TI-83 Plus.
· TI-92 came with the capability of computer algebra based on computer geometry.
These new calculators were welcomed by students and teachers. They became the essential part of modern studies.
Now it was the time for a special calculator and indeed it was the time for TI-89. The TI-89 graphing calculators developed by Texas Instruments are differentiated from other graphing calculators by their powerful computer algebra system, which allows symbolic manipulation of algebraic expressions. For example, equations can be solved in terms of variables; most other calculators can only give a numeric result. TI-89 with Advanced Mathematics Software is a portable symbolic, numeric, and graphing solution for advanced mathematics and engineering coursework. TI-89 has animation, complex numbers, 3D diagrams with rotating viewpoint, limits and exact mode sequences. Enhanced features like upgrade of software and easy connectivity with computers and other calculators made this machine a revolution in the market.
TI-89 possesses a 160×100 pixel resolution LCD screen with advanced flash memory. There is a video buffer that stores all of the information that should be displayed on the screen, and every time the screen is refreshed the calculator accesses this buffer and flushes it to the display.
These days’ calculators have become a major part of study curriculum. It is a requirement and necessity at the same time. The calculator makers should make more user friendly calculators. Texas Instruments is leading the way through its revolutionary steps but still there are lots of drawbacks that need attention. The Ti-89 calculator, for example, is an extraordinary calculator with the power of graphing, animation, computer algebra system (CAS), partial fraction decomposition, easy connectivity and many other features but this powerful machine is not easy to use. If calculator makers pay attention to this particular aspect of their products then these machines will do wonders in the time to come.