New TI-Nspire CX anti-Ndless hardware J

critor

In a previous news, we announced you the arrival for back to school 2013 of a new TI-Nspire CX anti-Ndless and anti-Nlaunch.

Indeed, Nlaunch and Ndless require respectively 3.1 versions of the Boot2 and system. These new calculators come with the latest version 3.2.4 of Boot2 and system, and feature a new hardware revision 'J' as engraved on the back (11th version) on which Boot2 3.1 is doesn't run properly. It is therefore impossible to install Nlaunch there, which prevents to put system 3.1 and then consequently forbirds to use Ndless. :(


Strangely on the old TI-Nspire CX hardware revision A to I, even after upgrading to the latest 3.2.4 version it is possible (painfully) to reinstall the 3.1 Boot2. So new TI-Nspire CX hardware J must include something new we are going to discover together:


You don't see anything special? The board looks like previous boards? Wait a minute, we will compare to compare them thoroughly for the TI-Nspire CX CAS:

Hardware revision	Motherboard	ASIC	Boot1	NAND	Keyboard	Dockboard	Photo
A	Firebird Color MB 6422	ET-NS2010B-1	3.0.0.99	Samsung K511F12ACA-B075	Firebird Color KB EVT 4421	Firebird Color BTB EVT1.2 2412
B	Firebird Color MB 6422	ET-NS2010B-1	3.0.0.99	Samsung K511F12ACA-B075	Firebird Color KB EVT 4421	Firebird Color BTB EVT1.2 2412
C	Firebird Color MB 6422	ET-NS2010B-1	3.0.0.99	Samsung K511F12ACA-B075	Firebird Color KB EVT 4421	Firebird Color BTB EVT1.2 2412
D	Firebird Color MB 6422	ET-NS2010B-1	3.0.0.99	Samsung K511F12ACA-B075	Firebird Color KB EVT 4421	Firebird Color BTB EVT1.2 2412
F	Firebird Color MB 6430	ET-NS2010B-1	3.0.0.99	Samsung K511F12ACA-B075	Firebird Color KB EVT 4421	Firebird Color BTB EVT1.2 2412
J	NSC CR MB 4440	ET-NS2010B-1	3.0.0.99	ESMT FM60D1G12A	Firebird cas Color KB DVT 4424	Firebird Color BTB EVT1.2 2412

Despite the similar architecture, the new HW-J does actually provides many new features.

Some things didn't change like the Boot1 (still version 3.0.0.99) or the ASIC chip (still en ET-NS2010B-1).

But besides that we have many new things:

• NAND chip which had always been a Samsung K511F12ACA-B075 has suddenly been replaced with an ESMT FM60D1G12A
• keyboard which had always been a Firebird_Color_KB_EVT_4421 has suddenly been replace with a Firebird_cas_Color_KB_DVT_4424
• like with hardware F we get a new motherboard, but this time with a completely different reference NSC_CR_MB_4440 :o
• internal J04 connector has been removed
• keyboard testpoints were remove too
  

The internal J04 connector did offer access to the RS232 serial console like the lower J01/Dock connector. It was therefore particularly useful on the TI- Nspire CM calculators which don't have the Dock connector. But its presence on the TI-Nspire CX is not an absurdity, as it is supposed to give access to the JTAG protocol. It can be particularly useful during the manufacturing process in order to perform the initial programming of chips, but also for reprogramming the chips of a TI-Nspire which no longer boots. To my knowledge, it has never been used by the community and so we are surprised by this removal. But apparently TI prefers to remove some way of repairing the TI-Nspire in order to secure it, and might just scrap and replace new TI-Nspire CX if they're ever returned for repair instead of reinitializing.

So there is a new NAND chip by ESMT which replaces the Samsung chip which was thete since the beginning. It is certainly possible that this chip is responsible for the Boot2 3.1 error, but normally it's a 128MB NAND chip like the old one.

But the most surprising thing is the new motherboard with a completely new reference. After Firebird_Color_MB_6422 and Firebird_Color_MB_6430 we get a NSC_CR_MB_4440, a hint of big changes
Precisely, we think we had already discovered an previous version of this new motherboard in a previous news on a chinese TI-Nspire CX sample which had a sticker on the back suggesting the use of 4 layers:


Although it was supposed to be a hardware revision C the motherboard was different than the above revision C. Even if the NAND chip remained the Samsung one, the J04 connector was missing and the reference was already similar to the hardware revision J one: NSC_CR_MB_4420 instead of NSC_CR_MB_4440.



In the end, I think I've brought more questions than answers and we still need to pull the puzzle pieces together. But such hardware security enforcement may be followed by a software security enforcement in the next 3.6 system.



Source:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12898&lang=en

ZephRay

New motherboard name is also interesting.
NSC_CR_MB_4440
NSC = Nspire Color?
CR = A new codename like firebird?
MB = Motherboard.
PS, one of the calculator seller told me that he has found a PLT-FHH1, but the screen has broken and no battery.

晓零辛纳

ndless stopped its updated may because of ti need to prevent some students to use ndless for cheating.

/* Sorry for my !@#$ English and thanks to google translate&Mymemory Translate. */

critor

Latest released Ndless version was built on 2013 August 31st, and the previous one on 2013 August 21st.
So we can't say than Ndless stopped being updated yet.
http://www.unsads.com/projects/nsptools/downloader/download/

ZephRay

中国好程序 发表于 2013-9-1 00:01
ndless stopped its updated may because of ti need to prevent some students to use ndless for cheatin ...

Latest ndless was released just yesterday.
Next ndless supported OS should be 3.6.

critor

Do some of you have the CX hardware revisions missing in the above table?
E, G, H, I

It would be interesting to check which MB they come with.

critor

So up to now, we've been reported hardware revisions J manufactured in march and april 2013.


We've just been reported on the TI-Planet chat a new hardware revision K, manufactured in june 2013 - and would gladly accept pictures from its motherboard too.
Of course it did came with OS/Boot2 3.2.4 preloaded too.

We don't know if it's a minor revision of hardware revision J, or if they did add some more evilness in it.

yzskyt

Well, TI is so busy recently...