TI-84 Plus series

The TI-84 Plus series are graphing calculators made by Texas Instruments. Many people like them because they support programs in languages like assembly and TI-BASIC. There are a lot of fans of the series, and they have developed many programs.

In 2015, the TI-84 Plus series was replaced by the new TI-84 Plus CE series. The Silver Edition and C Silver Edition stopped being made in 2015, but the original TI-84 is still made. Even though it is more than 20 years old, it is still used by a lot of schools and a lot of people in the United States.

Recently, the series has been in the news for two reasons. One is because people have created new, advanced programs for the series. Some of these programs are a ChatGPT client, ray-casting software, and offline AI. The second is because Texas Instruments hasn't changed the series in a long time, and they have been making it for 20 years. Some people say that this is holding technology back, and making a monopoly.

Editions

 TI-84 Plus 
The original TI-84 Plus, also called the TI-84 Plus Monochrome, was first made in 2004 as an upgrade to the TI-83 Plus. 

Both this calculator and the Silver Edition are called the monochromes because of their black and white screens. The TI-84 Plus was made after the TI-83 Plus; the way it works is mostly the same. It is much faster than the TI-83 Plus and has three times as much storage. 

The TI-84 Plus also introduced a USB port for talking to another calculator or computer, and a clock. It can talk to other calculators, which is called Link Mode. It can also talk to a computer to transfer programs and files using Texas Instruments' program, TI-Connect. 

A white version of the TI-84 Plus was introduced in 2023. As of 2025, it is still made and issued by schools in the United States. Some people say that the TI-84 Plus being so popular after so long is holding technology back and makes a monopoly.

 TI-84 Plus Silver Edition 
The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, also called the TI-84 Plus SE, was first made on January 7, 2004, as an upgrade to the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition.

Like the old TI-84 Plus, the Silver Edition has a USB port, a clock, and is able to run programs. It uses 4 AAA batteries and a backup button cell battery. The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition has around 30 applications. It has a removable front cover, and additional front covers in many colors were available to buy on Texas Instruments' website.

The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition stopped being made in 2015.

 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 first made in 2013 as the first Texas Instruments graphing calculator with a color screen that uses a Zilog Z80 CPU.

It added a 320-by-240 pixel color screen, a changed version of the TI-84 Plus's 2.55MP operating system, and a removable 1200 mAh lithium-ion battery that you can keep charging over and over again. People liked its detailed color screen, which added new features such as graphing multiple functions together in different colors.

The calculator was criticized for being a lot slower than its predecessors; these speed issues were caused by the old Zilog Z80 CPU. Even though that CPU was fine for older calculators in the TI-84 Plus series, it was slow in this one because of the color screen. 

This calculator showed people that a color screen calculator was useful, and Texas Instruments started making TI-84 Plus CE (with a new CPU) two years later. The C Silver Edition stopped being made soon after the CE started being made.

 TI-84 Plus T 
The TI-84 Plus T was made in 2015 by Texas Instruments, only in the Netherlands.

This model is like the original TI-84 Plus, but has a light to indicate whether or not the calculator is in press-to-test mode. 

The TI-84 Plus T has two different Exam Modes available that let you do different things. The level that lets you do less things does not allow any programs or applications to be executed or created; this mode makes the light blink green. The other level that lets you do more things lets you run three applications, PlySmlt2, Inequalz, and Conicsto; this mode makes the light blink orange.

 TI-84 Plus Pocket 
The TI-84 Pocket.fr was made in 2011 as a smaller version of the TI-84 Plus for France. A year later, the TI-84 Plus Pocket SE was made as a smaller version of the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition for Asia.

 TI-84 Plus EZ-Spot 
The TI-84 Plus EZ-Spot series, also called the School editions and the School Property editions, are types of TI-84 Plus series calculators made by Texas Instruments and only made available for schools to buy. The yellow design was picked to help stop stealing. 

A kickstand-style slide case, colored faceplates, and other things were available for buying. The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition and C Silver Edition also had EZ-Spot variants.

Software

 Programs and applications 
The TI-84 has a big programmer fan group, and a lot of Texas Instruments and community-made software has been made for it over the years.  These include video games, math programs, learning tools, and graphing software. Applications, often called flash applications, are a type of program stored in the calculator's ROM (storage); these tend to be more complex than programs.

In the last few years, developers have also made internet-based programs like a ChatGPT client, graphical ray-casting software, and even neural networks, such as locally-run artificial intelligence. Newspapers have made articles about these programs.

The TI-84 Plus series can use two programming languages: TI-BASIC and Z80 assembly language. There are also different languages made just for the TI-84 Plus series, like the Axe Parser.

 TI-84 Plus monochrome operating systems 
There have been eight operating systems for the monochrome TI-84 Plus series:

 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 made, users noticed that graphing speed was a lot slower because of the new asymptote checking in graphing.

In January 2006, Texas Instruments made OS 2.40 for the TI-84 Plus series. A big addition was the "Press-To-Test" feature; this let a teacher or exam supervisor stop the execution of programs and applications.

OS 2.53MP, made February 2010, added support for decorating equations (called MathPrint). This feature made the calculator a lot slower, and many people stayed on OS 2.43.

TI-84 Plus series calculators can run custom shells, such as MirageOS and Doors CS. Also, calculators with an older bootloader can run new operating systems not made by Texas Instruments, like KnightOS.

 TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition operating systems 
There have been two operating systems for the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition:

 4.0 (April 2013)
 4.2 (January 2014)

 Linking software 
Texas Instruments makes the TI-Connect software; it allows a calculator to talk to a computer. It can do these things:
 put programs and flash applications on a calculator,
 put files on the calculator, like a StudyCards stack,
 make and use calculator backups of both RAM and flash memory,
 put a calculator into Exam Mode,
 change the OS,
 and program in TI-BASIC using the IDE on the calculator.
Texas Instruments' newer program for the TI-84 Plus CE series calculators, TI-Connect CE, is backwards-compatible with the TI-84 Plus series, and can be used if people don't want to use TI-Connect. TI-Connect can run on Windows XP and above, while TI-Connect CE can run onWindows 10 and above. 

There are a lot of linking programs made by other people that work with the TI-84 Plus series; however, none of these are made anymore and they are all very old. These programs were developed for the Commodore Amiga, the Atari, MS-DOS, classic Mac OS, and Windows 3.1; so they do not work on new operating systems. 

Technical specifications
+ModelProcessorFlash ROMRAMDisplayI/OPower sourceWeightDimensionsTI-84 PlusZilog Z80 6/15 MHz480 KB 29LV80024 KBToshiba T6K04, monochrome, 120x64 pixels, 16x8 charactersMini USB, 96 kbit/s link port4x AAA, 1x SR44 35 mA backup7.4 ounces7.5 x 3.3 x 0.85 inchesTI-84 Plus Silver EditionZilog Z80 6/15 MHz, overclockable to 30 Mhz1.5 MB 29LV160128 KB, later decreased to 48 KB. 24 KB user accessible.Toshiba T6K04, monochrome, 120x64 pixels, 16x8 charactersMini USB, 96 kbit/s link port4x AAA, 1x SR44 35 mA backup7.6 ounces7.5 x 3.3 x 0.85 inchesTI-84 Plus C Silver EdiitonZilog Z80 6/15 MHz, overclockable to 23.5 Mhz3.5MB MX29LV32021 KBIlitek ILI9335, color, 320x240 pixels, 140 DPIMini USB, 96 kbit/s link port3.7L1200SP lithium-ion rechargeable7.4 ounces7.5 x 3.3 x 0.85 inches

 Name 
Many people think that the TI-84 Plus is called that because it is a newer version of the TI 84. It is actually called that because it has Flash ROM inside it.https://education.ti.com/html/eguides/graphing/84Plus/PDFs/TI-84-Plus-guidebook_EN.pdf

See also
 Texas Instruments
 Comparison of Texas Instruments graphing calculators
 Cemetech
 TI-BASIC

References

Other websites

 TI Education Portal (Texas Instruments' official website)
 ticalc.org (one of the largest TI-84 Plus-series hobbyist websites)
 DATAMATH (a website that has extended descriptions of all TI-84 Plus-series calculators)
 TI-84 Plus Graphing Calculator (Texas Instruments' page on the TI-84 Plus Monochrome)

Category:Graphing calculators
TI-84
Category:Products introduced in 2004
Category:Z80