Omnimaga

Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: critor on November 09, 2012, 01:48:23 pm

Title: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 09, 2012, 01:48:23 pm: Many TI-Nspire ClickPad and TI-Nspire+/CAS+ prototypes have been freely given by TI to students, teachers or engineers for beta-testing for years.

This became a problem when some testers tried to resale their prototypes on online shops, as they could easily be mistaken for production models, although they had early versions of the OS and couldn't be easily upgraded.

It seems the beta-testing of TI-Nspire TouchPad or TI-Nspire CX went different, as the same problem didn't happen.

But anyway, here is it finally - discover our first TI-Nsprie color prototype, the TI-Nspire Color, an EVT (Early Validation Tests) prototype of the non-CAS TI-Nspire CX:

(http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&album_id=143&image_id=1670)

Expect great discoveries soon, and why not some hints on the TI-84 Plus C, the future color version of the TI-84 Plus (http://ourl.ca/17416), as something happened at that time: non-CAS TI-Nspire CX dropped the TI-84 Plus emulator support, although the TI-84 Plus ROM remained available in the 3.0.1 non-CAS CX OS.

Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10723
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: Keoni29 on November 09, 2012, 01:52:35 pm: Interesting. Would it be possible that they put the hardware of this model in the new color 84+ SE?
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 09, 2012, 01:59:31 pm: Quote from: Keoni29 on November 09, 2012, 01:52:35 pm
Interesting. Would it be possible that they put the hardware of this model in the new color 84+ SE?

It's perfectly possible

And as it is an EVT prototype (2nd stage among 5 in TI-Nspire CX development) it might have significant hardware differences compared to production TI-Nspire CX.
Those differences are interesting as they help us figuring out dropped functionnalites, or functionnalities delayed/moved to another future model. ;)
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: Yeong on November 09, 2012, 02:29:50 pm: is that a same calculator that's in student software cd case screen?
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: aeTIos on November 09, 2012, 02:31:53 pm: Critor, I again wonder how you get all these prototypes. Do you have too much time on your hands O.o
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 09, 2012, 02:47:09 pm: School break ? ;)

And that's because I'm missing time, that I allmost didn't news on Omnimaga in October.
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: aeTIos on November 09, 2012, 02:48:17 pm: Just kidding ;)
But really, do you just browse ebay for those or so?
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 09, 2012, 02:49:23 pm: Like the TI-Nspire+, it's a loan from datamath.org (http://www.datamath.org).
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: aeTIos on November 09, 2012, 02:50:18 pm: Ahaaa. Do you have such good contacts that they loan them to you? O.O
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: Adriweb on November 09, 2012, 04:14:49 pm: Yup :D

And well, we exchange each other's discoveries, and since Joerg (THE Datamath person :P) and Critor are both collectors, they know they can trust each other for the devices safety :P

I've also met Joerg diretly at the 2012's T3 conference, and that reinforces contacts :)
(http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=thumbnail&album_id=60&image_id=545) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=60&image_id=545)
(Yes, that's Mayim Bialik on the photo too :P)
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: aeTIos on November 09, 2012, 04:17:50 pm: Aha :)
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: apcalc on November 09, 2012, 06:48:04 pm: Wow, great pics! :)
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 09, 2012, 07:03:23 pm: Wow that looks nice. Is the calc more blue-ish than the CX? It actually looks nice.

ALso off-topic but do you have a pic of that TI-83 Plus 2 calc as well Critor? I saw it mentionned in a TI-Planet news, but could not find any pic of it where I could actually see the text. D: (or if there was such pic in the news article, then it was 404'ing)
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 09, 2012, 08:06:20 pm: No sorry, I don't have any pic of the TI-83 Plus 2.
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 09, 2012, 08:07:46 pm: Aw too bad. If you can contact the guy who had it, I wonder if he would be willing to send you one?
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 09, 2012, 08:17:29 pm: We allready tried with his email last year, no answer - neither for me, nor for datamath.org.

But he accepted my add request on LinkedIn some days ago.
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: Sorunome on November 09, 2012, 08:24:06 pm: Wow, that's pretty awesome!
BTW, how do you pic up prototypes? I mean, how do you find 'em O.o
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: Lionel Debroux on November 10, 2012, 03:16:40 am: The loans and exchange of information go both ways - but in general, critor has good contacts with anyone in the community :)
Spoiler For Spoiler:
Those who don't have good contacts with critor aren't part of the community, and do not matter ^^
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: aeTIos on November 10, 2012, 03:33:31 am: I lol'ed at the spoiler.
Critor, any news on the prototype?
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 10, 2012, 04:40:37 pm: Yes, here is the latest news:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=10728

Boot1 3.0.0 and Boot2 3.0.0!
(http://i43.servimg.com/u/f43/13/23/13/53/11-10-12.png)

OS 3.0.0.0 or 3.0.0.devbuild:
(http://i43.servimg.com/u/f43/13/23/13/53/11-10-10.png)
(http://i43.servimg.com/u/f43/13/23/13/53/nscolo10.png)

Although the version is 3.0.0.0, the OS seems very similar with the released 3.0.1.

But, Boot1 and Boot2 are much more surprising... Watch it booting:
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: lkj on November 10, 2012, 04:46:55 pm: Why did they replace this nice boot screen with the ugly b/w animation it is in the released CX? O.O
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: aeTIos on November 10, 2012, 04:48:57 pm: wut? for me, it is a red-and-black screen featuring a load indicator.
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: Adriweb on November 10, 2012, 05:20:25 pm: Quote from: lkj on November 10, 2012, 04:46:55 pm
Why did they replace this nice boot screen with the ugly b/w animation it is in the released CX? O.O
In the CX, it has a TI background "image" (black-red) and the loading bar is blue, IIRC. You must think of the Clickpad/Touchpad Nspires :P
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: lkj on November 10, 2012, 05:35:02 pm: Ah right, I remember I've seen it. The green and black is still prettier, but red fits TI better.
I haven't thought of the clickpad/touchpad, though, but of the emulator.
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 10, 2012, 06:49:30 pm: Yeah for me it's the black and red thing. I notice that in the video it's black, though.

Is it me or does it take longer to boot?
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: flyingfisch on November 10, 2012, 07:39:28 pm: wow, nspire takes forever to boot! and I thought the prizm's reboot time of 2 sec was slow (it is, compared to fx9860)...
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 10, 2012, 07:57:29 pm: I think the PRIZM is slower because when turning it OFF the RAM is copied to Flash or vice-versa, right? (preventing most data loss)
Title: Re: Discovery of an Nspire Color prototype
Post by: critor on November 25, 2012, 11:59:26 am: Just leaked the TI-Nspire Color RS232 bootlog on TI-Planet:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=132766#p132766

Although TI-Nspire Color prototypes identify themselves as TI-Nspire CX, they only have 32MB SDRAM like TI-Nspire CM or older TI-Nspire and not 64MB! :o

Code: [Select]
Boot Loader Stage 1 (3.00.DEVBUILD) Build: 2010/9/14, 16:30:29 Copyright (c) 2006-2010 Texas Instruments Incorporated Using developer keys Last boot progress: 65 Available system memory: 33196 Checking for NAND: NAND Flash ID: MICRON SDRAM size: 32 MB SDRAM memory test: Pass Clearing SDRAM...Done. Clocks: CPU = 132MHz AHB = 66MHz APB = 33MHz Clearing SDRAM...Done. Clearing SDRAM...Done. Boot option: Normal Loading BOOT2 software... 0% 1% 2% 2% 3% 4% 5% 5% 6% 7% 7% 8% 9% 9% 10% 11% 12% 12% 13% 14% 14% 15% 16% 17% 17% 18% 19% 19% 20% 21% 22% 24% 25% 26% 28% 29% 30% 32% 33% 34% 36% 37% 38% 40% 41% 42% 44% 45% 46% 48% 49% 50% 52% 53% 54% 56% 57% 58% 60% 60% 61% 62% 62% 63% 64% 64% 65% 66% 66% 67% 68% 68% 69% 70% 70% 71% 72% 72% 73% 74% 74% 75% 76% 76% 77% 78% 78% 79% 80% 80% 81% 82% 82% 83% 84% 84% 85% 86% 86% 87% 88% 88% 89% 90% 90% 91% 92% 92% 93% 94% 94% 95% 96% 96% 97% 98% 98% 99% BOOT1: loading complete (315 ticks), launching image. Boot Loader Stage 2 (3.00.DEVBUILD) Build: 2010/9/24, 16:33:1 Copyright (c) 2006, 2007, 2008 Texas Instruments Incorporated Using developer keys Clocks: CPU = 132MHz AHB = 66MHz APB = 33MHz Checking for NAND: NAND Flash ID: MICRON Initializing graphics subsystem. Boot option: Normal Initializing filesystem. Datalight Reliance v2.10.1150 Copyright (c) 2003-2006 Datalight, Inc. Datalight FlashFX Pro v3.00 Build 1358 Nucleus Edition for ARM9 Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Datalight, Inc. Patents: US#5860082, US#6260156. Filesystem ready. Purging temporary files... TI_OS_INSTALL_PRECHECK_OK (0) Loading Operating System... 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10% 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25% 25% 26% 27% 28% 29% 30% 30% 31% 32% 33% 34% 34% 35% 36% 37% 38% 39% 39% 40% 41% 42% 46% 47% 48% 49% 49% 51% 52% 53% 54% 54% 55% 56% 57% 58% 59% 59% 60% 61% 62% 63% 64% 65% 65% 66% 67% 68% 69% 70% 70% 71% 72% 73% 74% 75% 75% 76% 77% 78% 79% 80% 81% 82% 83% 84% 85% 85% 86% 87% 88% 89% 90% 90% 91% 92% 93% 94% 95% 95% 96% 97% 97% 98% 100% BOOT2: loading complete (1887 ticks), launching image. Beginning system initialization. Clocks: CPU = 132 MHz AHB = 66 MHz APB = 33 MHz Preparing file system. This takes a while... POSIX layer initialized. POSIX "NULL" device initialized. POSIX "CONSOLE" device initialized. Datalight Reliance v2.10.1150 Copyright (c) 2003-2006 Datalight, Inc. Datalight FlashFX Pro v3.00 Build 1358 Nucleus Edition for ARM9 Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Datalight, Inc. Patents: US#5860082, US#6260156. POSIX file system initialized. File system ready. * No battery door detection System build date: Feb 14 2011, 12:43:17 Available memory: 15469900 bytes Purging temporary files... Launching system... WLAN Module detached! ------------------ Module is Gone!! TouchPad Firmware Revision : 01060000 Created Execution Context NavNet Ready.

With only 32MB SDRAM, even if we manage to mod them into real production TI-Nspire CX, TI-Nspire Color owners will remain disappointed, especially with some Ndless programs.