Omnimaga

Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: critor on September 16, 2012, 02:12:04 pm

Title: Inside the TI-Nspire CM-C, at last!
Post by: critor on September 16, 2012, 02:12:04 pm
Tonight, let's finally discover the long awaited images of the inside of a TI-Nspire CM-C, the one Adriweb went searching in Asia before giving lending it to me after coming back. :P

As already predicted in our previous news (https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10291#p128688), you will discover a motherboard organized very differently from the TI-Nspire CX one:
(http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1359) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1359) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1228) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1228)

Unlike the TI-Nspire CX, there are two boards on the TI-Nspire CM instead of three on the TI-Nspire CX:
It seems that we were right once again, when announcing in a previous news (http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10314) that the TI-Nspire CM code name was Rabbit

As in another previous news (http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10390), we notice the keypad board is once again specific to the non-CAS model. The CAS keypad board would probably be a RABBIT_KB_DVT_4420.



The third card on the TI-Nspire CX which is missing here on the TI-Nspire CM is the dock connector.

However, the J4 test / debug connector is there in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen board and should be usable in place of the dock connector to get the bootlog, like we did on the TI-Nspire Lab Station Cradle (http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10349#p129177).



The TI-Nspire CM is showing us two main chips on the screen board instead of three on the TI-Nspire CX:
(http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1364) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1364) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1351) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1351)

The visible chips are:
We allready said  (http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10390) that the ASIC was including the processor but also the Flash NOR ROM chip (boot1) and the RAM.

The first question which comes to mind as the TI-Nspire CX have 64MB of RAM and the TI-Nspire CM 32MB is whether ASIC is the same or not ... If it is the same, it means that there are 32MB of RAM which have been disabled some way...



The chip which is lacking is the 128MB Flash NAND ROM. Was it moved to the ASIC too? Or was it just moved on behind the board? Let's see...
(http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1360) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1360) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1361) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1361)
Yes, the missing 128MB NAND chip is on the back:
(http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1362) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1362) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=1363) (http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?image_id=1363)



Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10394&lang=en
Title: Re: Inside the TI-Nspire CM-C, at last!
Post by: Jim Bauwens on September 17, 2012, 03:13:54 am
Sweet :)
Title: Re: Inside the TI-Nspire CM-C, at last!
Post by: critor on September 18, 2012, 02:06:13 pm
I managed to get the bootlog! :)

There is no dock connector, but we can use the RS232 port on the J4 test/debug connector.

(http://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&album_id=119&image_id=1376)


Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10404
Title: Re: Re: Inside the TI-Nspire CM-C, at last!
Post by: TheNlightenedOne on September 18, 2012, 03:19:52 pm
That's pretty cool, nice work (as usual) critor!
Title: Re: Inside the TI-Nspire CM-C, at last!
Post by: Sorunome on September 18, 2012, 07:11:43 pm
Yeah, pretty cool ^^
Title: Re: Inside the TI-Nspire CM-C, at last!
Post by: apcalc on September 19, 2012, 05:58:16 pm
Great discovery! :)