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Texas Instruments Spelling ABC

Date of introduction:  1979 Display technology:  Fluorescent
New price:   Display size:  8 alphanumeric
Size:  6.2" x 3.4" x 1.1"
 157 x 86 x 29 mm3
   
Weight:  5.7 ounces, 163 grams Serial No:  
Batteries:  9V  Date of manufacture:  wk 29 year 1980
AC-Adapter:   Origin of manufacture:  Italy
Precision:   Integrated circuits:  TMC0274, TMC0355 (CD2607)
Memories:      
Program steps:   Courtesy of:  Joerg Woerner
    Download manual:   (EU: 6.6M Bytes)
  (EU: 3.9M Bytes)

The Spelling ABC educational toy is preprogrammed to teach the spelling of simple words through different games using a pictured booklet. In this booklet a lot of things are numbered and Spelling ABC asks you to type the corresponding word. The German edition contains 88 words each in three different categories adding to a total of 264 words. A nice feature of this game is an added buzzer to give some noisy feedback.

This Spelling ABC is identical with the 2nd generation US Spelling B introduced one year earlier but uses a German language ROM and a different keyboard plate.

SpellingB_PCB.jpg (80037 Byte)From a technical point of view the toy makes use of the technology introduced in 1978 with the Speak & Spell: The TMC0274 microcontroller is derived from the TMS1000 series and adopted to control both the keyboard and the display, the TMC0355 128kBit ROM stored in the Speak & Spell the Speech data and is known as Voice Synthesis Memory (VSM). 

In United Kingdom the Spelling B uses another language ROM and a slightly different design. Explore the Spelling ABC.



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If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.

© Joerg Woerner, Januaray 11, 2002. No reprints without written permission.