Sunday, January 16, 2011

Casio’s Prizm fx-CG10 Offers Full Color Graphing Calculator

Prizm fx-cg10Today at CES we were able to take a look at Casio’s latest graphing calculator, the Prizm fx-CG10. Other than the high-resolution color LCD, full textbook-style display, ability to display camera photos and myraid other features, we found the price point to be relatively low at $129.99. If the device is widely adopted, it may serve as a competitor to the popular Texas Instrument’s TI-83 academic calculator.

Casio provides these details about the Prizm at the read more link, and will be available later this month.

High-resolution color LCD with full textbook-style display

The color LCD offers full textbook-style display with the highest pixel resolution (82,944 dots) and widest color reproduction (65,536 colors) of any calculator. PRIZM™ comes with high-resolution fonts up to 18×24 dots (including blank dots), to enable equations and text to be displayed just like they appear in textbooks. The Blanview LCD delivers superior visibility and low power consumption, enabling color display with an estimated run time of 140 hours on four AAA-size alkaline batteries.

PRIZM fx-CG10 Picture Plot enables learning from real-life pictures

Picture Plot enables users to create their own graphs over pictures displayed on the color LCD. PRIZM™ comes with 55 types of color pictures that users can create graphs over, such as a picture of the parabola of jets from a water fountain and an image sequence of a clock’s pendulum movement. Users can perform regression calculations from the completed graphs to enhance their understanding of math functions.

Multitude of functions that leverage the color LCD

Colors can be added to a multitude of graphing objects including dotted lines, circles, and bars, as well as grid lines on graphs, labels of coordinate axes, and coordinate values displayed during tracing. The Color Link function links the colors used in graphs to the designated values in the spreadsheet screen, to aid the visual comprehension of trends and changes in values. PRIZM™ automatically color-codes brackets when entering equations with multiple brackets, as a visual aid to facilitate the entry of complex equations.

Specifications

Display

Type

Blanview LCD (Hyper Amorphous Silicon TFT)

Pixel

82,944 (216×384) dots

Color Reproduction

65,536 colors

Character

8 lines of 21 characters (including lines in Function Menu)

Full Textbook-Style Display

Math Input/Output

Variables

28

Calculation Range

+/-1×10-99 to +/-9.999999999×1099 and 0.
Internal operations use 15-digit mantissa.

Exponential Display Range

Norm 1:10-2> |x|, |x| 1010
Norm 2:10-9>|x|, |x| 1010

Program Capacity

61,440 bytes (max.)

USB Port

Complies with USB 2.0 standards

Storage Memory Capacity

16MB (max.)

Power Consumption

0.6W

Power Source

AAA-size alkaline batteries LR03 (AM4)
Nickel-metal hydride batteries (recommended type only)

Approximate Battery Life

Non-stop flashing cursor display in Run-Matrix mode. Each hour, display brightness 3 for first 30 seconds and then to 1 for remainder of hour.

Four AAA-size alkaline batteries LR03 (AM4)

250 hours

Four nickel-metal hydride batteries (recommended type only)

150 hours

Repeat of one-hour cycle of (1), (2), and (3) below.
(1) Menu display for 5 minutes (display brightness 3 for first 30 seconds and then 1 thereafter)
(2) Run-Matrix mode calculation for 5 minutes (display brightness 3)
(3) Flashing cursor in Run-Matrix mode for 50 minutes(display brightness 3 for first 30 seconds and then 1 thereafter)

Four AAA-size alkaline batteries LR03 (AM4)

140hours

Four nickel-metal hydride batteries (recommended type only)

085hours

Auto Power Off

Auto power off, adjustable for either approximately 10 minutes or approximately 60 minutes.

Dimensions

0.81” x 3.52” x 7.42”

Approximate Weight

.51 lb. (including alkaline batteries)