http://www.rskey.org/

is another massive database

Woahhhhh, this is beyond cool! I can't believe that anyone would make a site like this, but now that it's up, I can't believe I never found it before. I'll be spending time there, I can tell you that right now.

A big ditto to all that!

Check out the link. It is a picture of the actual museum. Notice what they have in a circle pattern near the main enterance. :-)

Now imagine getting you picture taken in front of them!

There is no actual museum. That's a picture of TI headquarters :)

Yeah, I believe it's the one close to highway 75.

Meh, my point still stands :-)

*squints eyes* Are those... humongous calculators? Haha, that's cool!

I wonder if they ever upgrade them :-)

Haha! Having a big calculator would be fun. You could play DDR on it! ;-)

Only if it was one of those slanty screened ones.

-W-

Calchenge?

Probably.

120d

This looks like a job for *dadadadaaaaa* PHOTOSHOP!!!!

Hmmm... That page claims the TI-80 has a Z80 processor, the description here at ticalc.org claims the opposite. Compare:
http://www.datamath.org/ SCI/Modern/TI-80.htm
"TI-80 uses a standard Z-80 compatible CPU"
http://www.ticalc.org/ basics/calculators/ ti-80.html
"CPU 980 KHz proprietary"
Which is true?

I would think it's a Z80. But without the actual calculator, I'm not sure.

maybe it's a custom made chip based on the z80 ? kind of like the 83+s (or is it only the SE's) and later have ?

That would count as a Z80 then. The 83+ SE is clearly a Z80, even if the CPU and other hardware functions are all integrated into one chip.

I think that the key word there might just be "compatible". If it is a custom chip, then both resources could be true.

-W-

I've actually tested this, with a cross-platform prime factorer. My TI-80 processes data significantly slower than my TI-83, which would indicate that the TI-80 almost certainly does not have the same 6MHz Z80 as the rest.

Didn't you burn your TI-80?

I believe he had 2.

That was a TI-81.

how much slower what if the ti80 had a 980kHz z80?

It could have just had a Z80 running at a lower speed...

Exactly. Specifically, if it was 6.12 times slower under controlled conditions, it could very well be a proprietary version of a Z80 running at 980 KHz. I don't think there's a way to send anything to it, so there probably isn't a way to see if the chip will accept Z80 instructions.

Please remember that the TI-80 uses only two small Lithium batteries instead the 4 AAA-sized cells.
Probably a reason to reduce operating current of the calculator - one solution is a reduced clock frequency.
I'm not sure that it is a 100% Z80 kernel inside the Toshiba chip, but it's most likely.

Regards, Joerg

*gasp* The Creator!

Using an EPROM programmer, I've managed to dump the TI-80 4.0 ROM.

Various system strings (memory screen, self-test screen, error strings...) are readable in the ROM file, so it isn't garbage.

I've shown that file to 3 persons.
Nobody is recognizing z80 machine code...

2 of the 3 persons, are saying it looks like a 16-bits processor.

Isn't that strange for a cheap calculator?
Why not reuse what allready existed?

The most frequent byte pattern is DE00 which appears 1786 times and only at even addresses.

Anybody who has some information about the cpu type is welcome...