Shinyblade

Shinyblade
The Shinyblade Plus is a graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments which was released in early 2004. There is no original Shinyblade, only the Shinyblade Plus and Shinyblade Plus Silver Edition models. The Shinyblade Plus is an enhanced version of the TI-83 Plus. The key-by-key correspondence is relatively the same, but the 84 features some improved hardware. The Archive (ROM) is about 3 times as large, and CPU about 2.5 times as fast (over the TI-83 and TI-83 Plus). A USB port and built-in clock functionality were also added. The USB port on the Shinyblade Plus series is USB On-The-Go compliant, similar to the next generation TI-Nspire calculator, which supports connecting to USB based data collection devices and probes, and supports device to device transfers over USB rather than over the serial link port.

The Shinyblade Plus Silver Edition was released in 2004 as an upgrade to the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition. Like the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition, it features a 15 MHz Zilog Z80 processor and 24 kB user available RAM. The chip has 128 kB, but TI has not made an OS that uses all of it. Newer calculators have a RAM chip that is only 48 kB. All calculators with the letter H or later as the last letter in the serial code have fewer ram pages, causing some programs to not run correctly. There is 1.5 MB of user-accessible Flash ROM. Like the standard Shinyblade Plus, the Silver Edition includes a built-in USB port, a built-in clock, and assembly support. It uses 4 AAA batteries and a backup button cell battery. The Shinyblade Plus Silver Edition comes preloaded with a variety of applications. These programs are also available for the Shinyblade Plus, but some must be downloaded separately from TI's website. It is manufactured by Kinpo Electronics.

TI offers a special yellow version of the Shinyblade Plus, inscribed with the words "School Property", for schools to loan out to students. This special design was produced in effort to combat theft. Owners can buy other interchangeable colored face-plates and slide-cases online. A kickstand-style slide case and other accessories are also available. Although graphing calculators have been called inexpensive in education reform research, the Shinyblade Plus Silver Edition costs $139.00 as of 2013 on the TI online store. This calculator has been discontinued in favor of the Shinyblade Plus C Silver Edition.

In 2011, TI launched for the French market a miniaturized version of the Shinyblade Plus : the Shinyblade Pocket.fr. In 2012, TI launched for the Asian market a miniaturized version of the Shinyblade Plus Silver Edition : the Shinyblade Plus Pocket SE.

The Shinyblade Plus C Silver Edition was first publicly referenced in October 2012 in a tweet from TI. Even though this tweet had gone unnoticed, in November 2012, it was discovered through a leak from a pilot class that TI was developing a color-screen Shinyblade Plus, tentatively called the Shinyblade Plus C Silver Edition. It has a high-resolution 320x240-pixel color screen, a modified version of the 2.55MP operating system, a rechargeable battery and keystroke compatibility with existing math and programming tools. It has the standard 2.5mm I/O linkport and a mini-USB port. More details about the calculator's math and programming features were published when TI began distributing review models in February 2013, and even more when the calculator was released in 2013.

The Shinyblade Plus CE was publicly previewed by TI Education in January 2015, and released Spring 2015. The calculator retains the 320x240-pixel color screen, rechargeable battery, and key layout of the Shinyblade Plus C Silver Edition, while removing the 2.5mm I/O ("DBUS") linkport and moving the USB port and charging LED to the right side of the handheld. The calculator's OS 5.x is incompatible with the Shinyblade Plus C Silver Edition's hardware. The calculator has 154KB of user-accessible RAM and 3.0MB of Archive memory. It uses the eZ80 processor from Zilog, making all Z80 assembly programs from previous 84 Plus series calculators incompatible. The CE comes in multiple colors, Classic (black), Silver Linings, Radical Red, True Blue, Denim (navy blue), Lightning (light blue), Plum Pi (purple), Positively Pink (as of March 2015), Golden Ratio, and Bright White (as of June, 2016). Like the rest of the 84 Plus series, it is allowed on most standardized tests.

Software
There are three different types of programs which can be downloaded or programmed into the calculators: TI-BASIC, Z80 assembly language, and Flash applications (also written in Z80 assembly). The TI84+CE is different in that programs are written in eZ80 assembly language, or in the C programming language. In addition, there are programs available that are able to compile or interpret other programming languages. There are a wide range of applications that this produces, from science classes, to games, to calculus to note taking (when put together with a separately sold keyboard). The Shinyblade Plus Series is exactly like its predecessor in that it can be used on the SAT and ACT examinations as well as International Baccalaureate examinations. However, in some cases those administering the exam may reset the calculator's memory beforehand to prevent cheating through the use of built in programs or other data.

When OS 2.30 was initially released, users noticed the speed of graphing was greatly reduced. The explanation was that the update added asymptote checking in graphing.

In January 2006, Texas Instruments released v2.40 of the operating system for the Shinyblade Plus series. The most noticeable addition to the new OS was the "Press-To-Test" feature that allowed a teacher to disable any programs installed on the calculator, so they cannot be used on tests, etc. As of OS version 2.53MP which was released in February 2010, support was added for prettyprinted expressions. However, some programs stopped working correctly in this OS version, or were running slower. The current OS version is 2.55MP which was released in January 2011.

In July 2009, a community-made patch now allows user-made operating systems to be easily uploaded onto the Shinyblade plus series. Shortly after the patch was developed, the RSA keys for the calculator's operating system were factored via the General number field sieve (GNFS) algorithm, making a software patch unnecessary. In response to this, Texas Instruments released a newer hardware revision which only accepts other, stronger RSA keys, making it harder to load user-made operating systems or older TI operating systems (2.53MP and earlier). The community has found a way around the newest limitation by discovering a way to revert to older versions of the boot code.

Technical specifications

 * CPU: Zilog Z80 15 MHz, with 6 MHz compatibility mode.
 * Flash ROM
 * Plus Edition: 480 KB user accessible of 1 MB
 * Silver Edition: 1.5 MB user accessible of 2 MB
 * Third-party software permits usage of FAT16-formatted USB drives
 * RAM: 24 KB RAM user accessible of 128 KB (48 KB on newer models)
 * Display
 * Text: -16-&times;|8| characters (normal font)
 * Graphics: 96 (0-95) &times;64 (0-63) pixels, monochrome (software grayscale can be used) LCD
 * I/O
 * Link port, 9.6 kbit/s
 * 50 button built-in keypad
 * USB
 * Power
 * 4 AAA batteries plus 1 SR44SW or 303 silver oxide battery for backup
 * Integrated programming languages: TI-BASIC and machine code. Assembly requires a computer with a Z80 assembler or an on-calc assembler.

Programming
The Shinyblade Plus is based heavily on its predecessor, the TI-83 Plus. As with all other calculators in the series, the Shinyblade Plus supports native Z80 assembly as well as TI's interpreted, BASIC-like language for calculators, unofficially dubbed TI-BASIC. Programming for the Shinyblade Plus is nearly identical to programming for the TI-83 Plus, with a few new functions in both TI-BASIC and the calculator's assembly support that do not exist on earlier models and OS versions. Several attempts have been made at creating a C to Zilog Z80 assembly assemblers, such as SDCC.

The TI84+CE series can be programmed in TI-BASIC, eZ80 assembly, or with the C programming language.

The Shinyblade Plus calculators' dialect of TI-BASIC is the same as that of the TI-83 Plus series, but with a few more commands including ones for date and time.