Really what I would like to see is a graphing calc that is as powerful as possible while still be classroom and test certified. Because with the professional edition we are dealing with a very small market of pure calc gamers like us. but the standard edition ought to be enjoyed by all. 

That would probably be the CAS-Standard(student) version rokem

Hey, so it's been two weeks and here's what's happening. It's been troublesome to work on the ARM Cortex A8 design, being that I thought it would be possible to route the PCB within 4 layers. It turns out more layers are needed with all the hardware (WiFi, sound, etc.) and the costs of prototyping would be way too much to handle in the situation I'm in. I have a feeling that continuing on this path of design, would be a blunder, being that a calculator of this magnitude would only target a very small minority of the people who use graphing calculators.

So the decision is to revert back to my previous old design (ARM11, 600MHz) and have that set as the low-end range of the UGX line and as the debut product. I figured it would be better to start out with something that resembles a traditional graphing calculator, something that looks like it's useable in school, but still very powerful. Also, the hardware has already been proven to work and the good news is that the parts have gotten cheaper for this design. To those who wanted the 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 UGX, it will have to be shelved for now. Maybe sometime in the future, it'll fill in the mid range spot of the UGX line, hopefully if the 600MHz ARM11 UGX does well.

With the pricing going down for the parts in the low-end UGX, the plan is that the low-end UGX will sell cheaper than the TI-nSpire CX (~$140-$150), yet still be more powerful all around compared to the CX.

The front part of this UGX casing has been printed and is being to used to help guide and layout the internal hardware:


(Size comparison)


(LCD inserted into case)


So as you can see from the casing, the low-end UGX looks school friendly. The LCD being used in this prototype has a resolution of 320x480 pixels, just like the iPhone 3G. In fact, the plan is to use surplus iPhone replacement LCDs to help lower the cost of the design while at the same time give the UGX the highest resolution LCD of any graphing calculator made. So if you hate that I'm temporarily ditching the current UGX design, hopefully you'll be pleased with this.

The hardware, right now, is being retrofitted for this case and I should be able to get a working unit sometime by next month along with the buttons/keys.

It looks good. I'm a little sad about how you at least temporarily got rid of the 1GHz ARM Cortex A9. That sounded like it would be fun to have. I guess we just have to make your business go well so you cn start making those.

Your design looks a lot like the Nspire... TI might get angry at you for that

DJ's right on this if you restart too much a project will almost always die.

He might have to start with the lower design levels because of production costs though. Maybe once his business is up and rnning he can ad in the developer with A9. I think this is a wondeful project and very much hope it doesn't die

How wil the final model look? Like the cases you've posted earlyer(Which looks a bit like the nspire) or like the picture on your site(Where it looks more like a laptop)
Or is the nspire like model the cheap version and lhe laptop like version the professional edition?

And last: This thing has better specs than my laptop! Are you sure this is still a calc, not a handheld PC?

But than teachers would complain about us having them in school