DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM
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DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments PS-6700
| Date of introduction: | Jan.5, 1996 | Display technology: | LCD dot matrix |
| New price: | $69.00 | Display size: | 6 lines by 24 char |
| Size: | 3.3" x 5.1" x
0.70" 85 x 129 x 18 mm3 |
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| Weight: | 4.6 ounces, 130 grams | Serial No: | 0000047 |
| Batteries: | 2*CR2032 | Date of manufacture: | mth 07 year 1995 |
| AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | Taiwan (C) | |
| Precision: | 12 | Integrated circuits: | CPU: Toshiba T6M76 ROM: AT27C512 RAM: 2*UMC UM62256 Display: 2*LCD-Driver |
| Memories: | 64k Bytes RAM | ||
| Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
Texas Instruments introduced early in 1996 a
new series of Personal Organizers. It could be traced back to the PS-6200, the
first Organizer with the Texas Instruments label.
This PS-6700 looks identical to the PS-6800 with more storage capacity. Like most other PS-6xxx products these two products are compatible with the PS-6155 Dock-station cradle. The PS-6155 connects the Organizer with a IBM-compatible PC and synchronizes the Organizer with Lotus Organizer 97 software.
The PS-6700 organizer keeps three main types of information: Reminders, Addresses and Notes. Within these three areas, there are many different ways to store and recall information. The huge memory of the PS-6700 with 64k Bytes size is flexible and could be divided without any limitations among the three files. In addition to the basic Organizer function you'll discover:
| • A flexible clock with 12-hour AM/PM or 24-hour time • A calendar from January 1960 to December 2059. • A calculator with 10-digits display capacity and 12-digits of accuracy • World time of 62 cities in all 24 time zones supporting one home city and 4 world cities • A backup battery |
The
display of the PS-6700 is very useful supporting 6 lines by 24 characters with
crystal clear letters.
Dismantling
this PS-6700i manufactured in 1995 by Compal
Electronics in Taiwan reveals no surprises. The printed circuit board
(PCB) looks very familiar to us and we identify the major components
immediately.
The hardware of the PS-6700 is similar to a lot of other
products: An 8-bit microprocessor of the Z80 family, a huge Mask ROM of 64k Bytes
capacity, a Static RAM of 64k Bytes size and a driver for the LCD display. You'll find
similar architectures with just another balance of RAM and ROM capacity:
| Product | ROM-size | RAM-size | Example |
| Spell-Checker | 128k Bytes | 2k Bytes | RR-1 |
| Data Bank | 64k Bytes | 64k Bytes | PS-6700 |
| Graphing calculator | 64k Bytes | 8k Bytes | TI-81 |
| Modern graphing calc | 512k Bytes | 32k Bytes | TI-83 Plus |
The pictured PS-6700
with serial number 0000047 uses an
alterable EPROM for the main software instead the later Read-Only-Memory!
The
data memory of the PS-6700 and PS-6800 are specified with 64k Bytes resp. 128k
Bytes - the layout of the printed circuit board (PCB) suggests
immediately the technical solution: The PCB accommodates one or two different
sized memory chips in a very flexible configuration, this PS-6700 hosts
two UMC UM62256 chips sporting a capacity of 32k Bytes, each.
The
PS-6700 uses two driver chips in
Chip-on-Board (COB) technolgy on the Main-PCB, we couldn't identify the
manufacturer and type of them.
The PS-6700 was replaced soon with the PS-6760Si and within another year with
the PocketMate 200. Models with more memory were available with the
PS-6860Si / PocketMate 300 (128k Byte RAM) and PS-6960Si /
PocketMate 400 (256k
Byte RAM).
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, January 17, 2002. No reprints without written permission.