Difference between revisions of "83Plus:Hardware Revisions"

Revision as of 02:51, 12 December 2021

The TI-83 Plus has gone through about 50 different hardware revisions, and has evolved significantly from the 5-chip original 1999 design to the 3-chip design used presently. Careful analysis of hundreds of TI-83 Pluses has led to the following conclusions.

Produced by Inventec

Inventec produced the prototypes of the TI-83 Plus and the earliest production models; serial numbers indicate production began in March 1999, which is nearly a year later than the TI-73. Hardware revisions are not comparable between factory codes I and S, but they are comparable between factory codes S and P.

Interestingly, after having switched to the 3.3-volt Inventec 6SI837 for quite some time, Inventec produced a short run of 5-chip TI REF 9815455GAII-based TI-83 Pluses as factory code I, hardware revision D.

Production expanded to Shanghai, as factory code S, in 2000. By 2002, Shanghai was Inventec's sole production of the TI-83 Plus. Only hardware revision A used the 5-chip architecture, while all later models use a 3-chip architecture around either the Inventec 6SI837 or the TI REF TI-738X ASIC. Hardware revision E changed to a LCD with poor contrast, and use of this poor-quality LCD continued at least through F. Hardware revision J synchronized hardware revision lettering with Nam Tai, as both manufacturers switched to 3.3-volt LCD drivers and eliminated the LCD daughterboard entirely. During revision K, and without bumping the hardware revision, the LCD driver was switched from the T6K04 to the NT7564H; this happened sometime during 2007.

Late in 2007, production moved from Shanghai to Pudong. The Pudong LCDs have the poorest contrast ratio of any TI-83 Plus hardware, but the hardware is otherwise identical to Shanghai-produced calculators of the same revision.

Inventec (I)

Inventec Shanghai (S)

Produced by Nam Tai

Nam Tai produced the TI-83 Plus alongside Inventec from the first year of production all the way until the end of 2010, if not later. The baby blue Target cosmetic variant was only produced by Nam Tai. Earlier Nam Tai calculators were plagued with the LCDs missing rows/columns, but the contrast of the LCD is superior to Inventec's. Hardware variants are scattered throughout date periods and are not exactly chronological.

Nam Tai (N)

Produced by Kinpo

Kinpo co-produced the TI-83 Plus with Inventec Pudong for a brief period of time, but was soon the sole TI-83 Plus manufacturer. Kinpo's calculators can be quickly identified by an angled plastic bezel immediately below the LCD. While LCD contrast and durability is excellent on these calculators, the new Kinpo LCD driver used on later-production calculators (perhaps isolated solely to the Philippines factory) can cause issues with community assembly programs; earlier hardware uses the NT7564H LCD driver. Hardware revisions are comparable between Kinpo China and Kinpo Philippines.

Certain calculators produced by Kinpo Philippines, especially those sold at Walmart, began using a new serial number format, with the first letter indicating year of production (A=2019, B=2020, ...) and the next two digits indicating the week of production. Since hardware revisions do not appear to be encoded in this format, direct comparison of PCBs is necessary to determine a calculator's hardware revision.

Kinpo (K)

Kinpo Philippines (L)