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TI-84 Plus series
Line of graphing calculators produced by Texas Instruments From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The TI-84 Plus series is a line of graphing calculators produced by Texas Instruments. The series has amassed a significant following for its support of assembly language and TI-BASIC programs, and the original TI-84 Plus was one of the first calculators to have a substantial hobbyist community. This has resulted in the series having a large library of community-created programs and software.
The TI-84 Plus series was superseded by the TI-84 Plus CE series in 2015; of the original series, only the TI-84 Plus is still in production, the Silver Edition and C Silver Edition having been discontinued in 2015. However, the TI-84 Plus line remains popular in the United States, being issued by many schools more than 20 years after its introduction.
In recent years, the series has received considerable media attention from technology publications due to modern app releases for the platform, such as an unofficial ChatGPT client, ray-casting software, and a locally-run neural network. Conversely, the series has also been criticized for helping stagnate technology development and contributing to Texas Instruments' calculator monopoly.
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TI-84 Plus
The original TI-84 Plus, also known as the TI-84 Plus Monochrome, was released in 2004 as an upgrade to the TI-83 Plus.[1]
Together with the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, they are known as the monochromes due to their monochrome displays.[2] The TI-84 Plus succeeded the TI-83 Plus; its keyboard layout, compatibility and interface are similar to that of the TI-83 series calculators. Despite this, it has significant hardware advantages: its CPU is 50% faster, and it has thrice as much flash ROM as the TI-83 Plus.[3]
The TI-84 Plus also introduced a mini-USB data transfer port (while retaining the 2.5 mm "I/O" serial port from the TI-83 Plus), and a built-in perpetual clock.[4] The USB port on the TI-84 Plus series is USB On-The-Go compliant, similar to the TI-Nspire calculator; it can connect to another calculator in order to send and receive files, known as Link Mode.[5] It can also connect to a computer to transfer programs and files using Texas Instruments' proprietary program, TI-Connect.[6]
An all-white version of the TI-84 Plus was introduced in 2023.[7] As of 2025, it is still in production and issued by schools around the United States.[8][9] Critics claim that the continued prevalence of the TI-84 Plus holds back technology and is a sign of monopoly.[10][11]
TI-84 Plus Silver Edition
The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, also known as the TI-84 Plus SE, was introduced on January 7, 2004, as an upgrade to the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition.[12]
It features a 15 MHz Zilog Z80 processor and 24 KB of user-available RAM; the system technically features 128 KB, but as with the TI-83 Plus SE, the operating system was never updated to utilize it.[13] Newer calculators have only 48 KB of RAM.[13] All calculators whose serial numbers end in the letters H to Z have fewer RAM pages, causing some programs to not run correctly.[14] The calculator has 1.5 MB of user-accessible ROM.[12]
Like the standard TI-84 Plus, the Silver Edition includes a built-in USB port, a built-in clock, and assembly support.[12] It uses 4 AAA batteries and a backup button cell battery. The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition came preloaded with around 30 applications.[15] It has a removable faceplate, and additional faceplates in a variety of colors were available to purchase on Texas Instruments' website.[15]
The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition was discontinued in 2015.[16]
TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition (CSE)
The TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, also known as the TI-84 Plus CSE, C SE or C-SE, was released in 2013 as the first Z80-based Texas Instruments graphing calculator with a color screen.[17]
It introduced a 320-by-240 pixel color screen, a modified version of the TI-84 Plus's 2.55MP operating system, and a removable 1200 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery.[18][19] It was praised for its high-resolution color screen, which added new functionality such as graphing multiple functions together in different colors.[20]
The calculator was criticized for being noticeably slower than its predecessors; these performance issues were caused by the aging Zilog Z80 CPU. While the nearly 40-year-old processor was sufficient for previous TI-84 Plus series calculators, it struggled to drive the much-higher-resolution color display in the C Silver Edition.[21]
Despite this, the C Silver Edition demonstrated the value of a high-resolution, color-screen calculator, leading to the introduction of the TI-84 Plus CE (with an upgraded CPU) two years later.[22] The C Silver Edition was discontinued shortly after the CE's introduction.[16]
TI-84 Plus T
The TI-84 Plus T was introduced in 2015 by Texas Instruments, exclusive to the Netherlands.[23]
This model is similar to the original TI-84 Plus, but features an LED to indicate whether or not the calculator is in press-to-test mode.[24] The hardware of the TI-84 Plus T is similar to the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, but the TI-84 Plus T is no longer able to run the assembler.[25]
The TI-84 Plus T has two different Exam Modes available with different levels of restrictiveness. The most restrictive level does not allow any programs or applications to be executed or created; this mode makes the LED blink green. The second, more moderate Exam Mode allows three applications, PlySmlt2, Inequalz, and Conicsto, to be executed; this mode makes the LED blink orange.[26]
TI-84 Plus Pocket
The TI-84 Pocket.fr was introduced in 2011 as a miniaturized version of the TI-84 Plus for the French market.[27] A year later, the TI-84 Plus Pocket SE was introduced as a miniaturized version of the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition for the Asian market.[28]
TI-84 Plus EZ-Spot
The TI-84 Plus EZ-Spot series, also known as the School editions and the School Property editions, are variants of TI-84 Plus series calculators produced by Texas Instruments and only made available for schools to purchase.[29] The easily-distinguishable design was chosen in an effort to combat theft.[30]
A kickstand-style slide case, colored faceplates, and other accessories were available for purchase.[31] The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition and C Silver Edition also had EZ-Spot variants.[32]
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Software
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Programs and applications
The TI-84 has a significant hobbyist following,[33] and a wide variety of official and community-made software has been developed for it over the years.[34] These include video games, math programs, educational tools, and graphing software. Applications, often called flash applications, are a type of program stored in the calculator's ROM; these tend to be more complex than programs.[35]
In the last few years, developers have also created internet-based programs like a ChatGPT client[36], graphical ray-casting software,[37] and even neural networks, such as locally-run artificial intelligence.[38] These have attracted the attention of technology publications.[39][40][41]
The TI-84 Plus series supports two programming languages: TI-BASIC and Z80 assembly language.[42] There are also unofficial languages developed specifically for the TI-84 Plus series, one of which is the Axe Parser.[43]
TI-84 Plus monochrome operating systems
There have been eight operating system releases for the monochrome TI-84 Plus series:[4][44]
- 2.21 (March 2004)
- 2.22 (August 2004)
- 2.30 (December 2004)
- 2.40 (November 2005)
- 2.41 (May 2006)
- 2.43 (December 2007)
- 2.53MP (February 2010)
- 2.55MP (January 2011)
When OS 2.30 was initially released, users noticed that graphing speed was greatly reduced; this was due to the addition of asymptote checking in graphing.[45]
In January 2006, Texas Instruments released OS 2.40 for the TI-84 Plus series. A notable addition was the "Press-To-Test" feature; this allowed a teacher or exam supervisor to temporarily disable the execution of programs and applications.[46]
OS 2.53MP, released February 2010, added support for pretty-printing equations (called MathPrint). This feature came with severe performance impacts,[47] and many people stayed on OS 2.43.[48]
TI-84 Plus series calculators can run custom shells, such as MirageOS and Doors CS.[49][50] In addition, calculators with an older bootloader can run custom operating systems, like KnightOS.[51][52]
TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition operating systems
There have been two operating system releases for the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition:[53][54]
- 4.0 (April 2013)
- 4.2 (January 2014)
Linking software
Texas Instruments provides the TI-Connect linking software; it allows a calculator to transfer data to and from a computer.[55] It can do the following:[56]
- install programs and flash applications on a calculator,
- load calculator files, such as a StudyCards stack (a database for the TI educational application StudyCards)[57],
- create and restore calculator backups of both RAM and flash memory,
- put a calculator into Exam Mode,
- update the firmware on a calculator to a newer version, and downgrade it to an older version when possible,
- and program in TI-BASIC using its built-in IDE.
Texas Instruments' newer program for the TI-84 Plus CE series calculators, TI-Connect CE, is backwards-compatible with the TI-84 Plus series; it can be used in place of TI-Connect.[58] TI-Connect is compatible with Windows XP and above,[55] while TI-Connect CE is compatible with Windows 10 and above.[58]
There are multiple third-party linking programs compatible with the TI-84 Plus series; however, they are all abandonware. These programs were developed for the Commodore Amiga, the Atari, MS-DOS, classic Mac OS, and Windows 3.1; and as such, are not compatible with most modern operating systems.[59]
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Technical specifications
Etymology
A common misconception is that the TI-84 Plus series is an improvement upon "the TI-84 series", or that the TI-84 Plus is an advanced version of the "TI-84"; in reality, no such series or calculator model has ever existed. Rather, the "Plus" part of the name is because the calculator has inbuilt flash memory.[64]
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