The TI-30 is a
scientific calculator
A scientific calculator is an electronic calculator, either desktop or handheld, designed to perform mathematical operations. They have completely replaced slide rules and are used in both educational and professional settings.
In some are ...
manufactured by
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...
, the first model of which was introduced in 1976. While the original TI-30 was discontinued in 1983 after several design revisions, TI maintains the TI-30 designation as a branding for its low and mid-range scientific calculators.
Price
The original TI-30 was notable for its very low cost for the time, around US$25. This was much less than the retail prices of other scientific calculators of the era; for example,
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
's cheapest scientific calculator at the time was still well over $100. The Casio FX-20, another popular scientific calculator, sold for roughly double the price of the TI-30. The TI-30 sold for less than the cost of a professional-grade
slide rule
The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is ...
. The TI-30 sold an estimated 15 million units during its lifespan from 1976–1983.
Description
The original TI-30, a cost-reduced but functionally equivalent version of TI's
SR-40 unit, utilized an
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
display, is powered by a
9-volt battery
The nine-volt battery, or 9-volt battery, is an electric battery that supplies a nominal voltage of 9 volts. Actual voltage measures 7.2 to 9.6 volts, depending on battery chemistry. Batteries of various sizes and capacities are manufactured; ...
, and contained nearly all of its functionality in one chip, where previous calculators used many discrete components. The TI-30 could perform nearly all the
logarithm
In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number to the base is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 o ...
ic and
trigonometric
Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies. ...
functions of an
HP-21
The HP-21 was a scientific calculator produced by Hewlett-Packard between 1975 and 1978. It was designed as a replacement for the HP-35, and was one of a set of three calculators, the others being the HP-22 and HP-25, which were similarly built ...
, its primary competition at the time. Although the
Texas Instruments SR-50 pioneered algebraic notation with operation precedence in 1974, the TI-30 made those features available at a more affordable price.
Early production TI-30 units (c. 1976) contained a logic error in their calculation of inverse tangents. On these early models, pressing "0 INV TAN" would cause the calculator to go into an infinite loop until it is powered off with the OFF button. The "0" had to be pressed on the keyboard; the calculator produced a correct answer if the "0" was the result of a previous calculation.
The TI-30 was at one point the most popular scientific calculator for
junior high
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...
and
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
use in the United States. For $24.95, the purchaser received both the calculator and a 224-page book, ', which covered basics in algebra, business and finance, trigonometry, probability and statistics, physics and chemistry, and had ideas for games and puzzles that could be played with the calculator.
In 1980, Texas Instruments converted the TI-30 to use a
liquid crystal display
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat panel display, flat-panel display or other Electro-optic modulator, electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liqui ...
, releasing the TI-30 LCD in Europe and the TI-30 II a year later in the U.S. The calculator itself remained functionally similar over several redesigns in the following few years, with solar power coming to the line in 1982 in a joint venture with
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
. The "X" in all current TI-30 models refers to the addition of a 10+2 display (that is, a 10 digit
mantissa plus a 2-digit
exponent
Exponentiation is a mathematical operation, written as , involving two numbers, the '' base'' and the ''exponent'' or ''power'' , and pronounced as " (raised) to the (power of) ". When is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to re ...
) in 1993; with the addition of a 2-line display and a
D-pad
A D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad; officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern vid ...
in the XIIS/XIIB in 1999, the TI-30 line split in 2, with the TI-30Xa becoming TI's overall entry-level scientific, and the enhanced XII designs offering more input flexibility to the user. The MultiView models, introduced in 2006 and 2007, replace the 2-line display with a
dot matrix
A dot matrix is a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Most types of modern technology use dot matrices for display of information, including mobile phones, televisions, and printers. The system is al ...
display similar to a
graphing calculator
A graphing calculator (also graphics calculator or graphic display calculator) is a handheld computer that is capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing other tasks with variables. Most popular graphing calculat ...
, and move many of the functions traditionally placed on or next to individual calculator keys off onto menus very similar to those used on the popular
TI-83 calculator line.
At one time or another, most models in the line since the introduction of the LCD models have been available in both solar powered and battery versions; the Xa retains solar power only on models sold in a few markets in Europe, while the XIIS and XS MultiView models run off both solar and battery power depending on available ambient light. The earliest model, however, uses a 9 volt battery, which is expected to last for approximately 20 hours of use, according to the Owner's Manual. However, two rechargeable kits were offered, the RK-1 and the RK-2, which each contained a battery allowing for two hours and four hours of continuous use, respectively, before needing to be recharged.
TI-30 models
![Logarithm Bug](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Logarithm_Bug.jpg)
* TI-30 (1976): first version; LED display
* TI-30 LCD (1978): the first LCD version. European market only.
* TI-30 II (1981): slimline format with the TI-30 key layout
* TI-30 III (1984)
* TI-30 SLR (1982): with Toshiba calculating chip. It had 9 digits of calculating precision. (US units had 11 digits at that time.)
* TI-30 SLR+ (1987): solar
* TI-30 Stat (1988): added basic statistical functions
* TI-30 Galaxy: part of a line of
landscape format
Page orientation is the way in which a rectangular page is oriented for normal viewing. The two most common types of orientation are ''portrait'' and ''landscape''. The term "portrait orientation" comes from visual art terminology and describes ...
calculators from the mid-1980s
* TI-30X (1993): the X signifies an expanded 10 digit display (from the original 8). Switching to a new circuit board design introduced a ''logarithm bug''.
* TI-30Xa (1994): added the constant key to the TI-30X
* TI-30Xa (rev 1996): introduced a more modern, smoothed design. Currently the bottom of the TI-30 line, the Xa has a standard one-line, 10+2 digit display. The solar-powered eco RS model is available only in Europe.
* TI-30Xa Solar School Edition (2004): a modified version of the TI-30Xa, without the fraction buttons. This calculator is approved for Virginia State Testing.
* TI-30X IIS and TI-30X IIB (1998): added a two-line, scrollable display and a
D-pad
A D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad; officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern vid ...
for navigating previous results. Solar/battery and battery powered respectively.
* TI-30XS and TI-30XB MultiView (2005): first non-graphing TI calculators with a dot-matrix display; able to display expressions in textbook-style notation. Uses a command syntax similar to
TI-BASIC
TI-BASIC is the official name of a BASIC-like language built into Texas Instruments (TI)'s graphing calculators.
TI-BASIC is a language family of three different and incompatible versions, released on different products:
* TI-BASIC 83 (on Z80 ...
, but with no programming capability.
* TI-30X Pro MultiView and TI-36X Pro (2011): In addition to the features TI-30XS and TI-30XB MultiView, it features a solver, availability to calculate matrices, vectors, complex numbers and convert different units. The TI-36X Pro is the American and international version of the European model, the TI-30X Pro MultiView. The TI-30X Pro MultiView was released in 2010 and then promptly recalled because of programming errors. It was re-released in 2011.
* TI-30XA (2013): retained the size and shape of the 1996 model, having buttons rounded on the bottom, and the color of the "2nd" button changed from yellow to green. With introduction of a new circuit board in 2015 the logarithm bug was fixed,
also the calculator switched to using just one 1.5V battery instead of two.
* TI-30X Plus MultiView (2015): a TI-30X Pro MultiView without certain advanced features. Only released in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to meet the requirements of certain high schools that ban the removed features.
* TI-30X Pro MathPrint™ and TI-30X Plus MathPrint™ (2018):
successors of TI-30X Pro MultiView/TI-36X Pro and TI-30X Plus MultiView. Both have a modern design, a higher resolution display and some other improvements.
File:TI-30-3682e2.jpg, Original TI-30 model (ca. 1979) with LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
display
Image:TI-30STAT-IMG 4549.JPG, TI-30 Stat
File:TI-30 Galaxy calculator.jpg, TI-30 Galaxy
File:TI-30X SOLAR, 2.jpg, TI-30X SOLAR
Image:TI-30XIIS.JPG, TI-30X IIS
File:Calculator-TI-30XA-rev2015.jpg, TI-30XA (since 2013)
File:Ti 30x pro mathprint.jpg, TI-30X Pro MathPrint (2018)
File:Two TI calculators with carrying case.jpg, A TI-30 next to its carrying case, with a modern TI nSpire beside it
References
Datamath Calculator Museum: TI-30, 25th anniversary
External links
The Great International Math on Keys bookis a problem-solving guide exemplifying usage of electronic calculators, in particular TI-30 with Algebraic Operating System, developed by the staff of the Texas Instruments Learning Center in cooperation with the staff of the University of Denver Mathematics Laboratory in 1976.
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Texas Instruments calculators