TI-30

Although the Texas Instruments SR-50 pioneered algebraic notation with operation precedence in 1974, the TI-30 made those features available at a more affordable price.

For $24.95, the purchaser received both the calculator and a 224-page book, The Great International Math on Keys Book, which covered basics in algebra, business and finance, trigonometry, probability and statistics, physics and chemistry, and had ideas for games and puzzles that could be played with the calculator.

In 1980, Texas Instruments converted the TI-30 to use a liquid crystal display, releasing the TI-30 LCD in Europe and the TI-30 II a year later in the U.S.

The calculator itself remained functionally similar over several redesigns in the following few years, with solar power coming to the line in 1982 in a joint venture with Toshiba.

The "X" in all current TI-30 models refers to the addition of a 10+2 display (that is, a 10 digit mantissa plus a 2-digit exponent) in 1993; with the addition of a 2-line display and a D-pad in the XIIS/XIIB in 1999, the TI-30 line split in 2, with the TI-30Xa becoming TI's overall entry-level scientific, and the enhanced XII designs offering more input flexibility to the user.