TI-82
The TI-82 is a graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments. The TI-82 was designed in 1993 as an upgrade to the TI-81 and was the direct predecessor of the TI-83. It shares with the TI-81 its ZiLOG Z80 microprocessor (now running at 6MHz), its 96x64 pixel display, and the core feature set of the TI-81 while expanding on and adding many new features. It is expected to be discontinued in late 2004.
Features of the TI-82
As noted above, the TI-82 was powered by the same processor that powered its predecessor, the TI-81, which was a ZiLOG Z80 microprocessor; its clock speed was increased from 2MHz in the TI-81 to 6MHz in the TI-82. In addition, the available RAM was increased more than tenfold - from 2.4KB to 28KB.
Some of the more notable improvements of the TI-82 over the TI-81 were: the addition of a link port to enable programs and other data to be transferred between two calculators or between a calculator and a computer; the addition of two new graphing types - polar and sequence; the addition of a new type of data - the list; the expansion of the size limit of matrices to 50x50; and the (unintentional) addition of the ability to program the calculator in assembly language. The last of these provided a significant boost in interest in the programmability of the calculator, as the use of assembly language (as opposed to Texas Instruments' own TI-BASIC) enabled significantly more performance and flexibility with the programs able to be used on the calculator.
Carried over from the TI-81 is the TI-82's power source - four AAA batteries and one lithium ion backup battery (electricity) (to ensure programs are kept when the AAA batteries are being changed).
