Handy Tech Galixa Speech

The first generation of the Galixy Speech is based on the TI-30 Galaxy introduced in 1984. 

This Galixa Speech is a scientific calculator with natural voice speech output. Numerical data on the display panel can be spoken digit by digit or as a complete number. It speaks all key functions: e.g. when the [SIN] key is pressed the calculator says "Sine"; these announcements can be repeated. It also has a built-in clock and alarm function. The volume can be adjusted using a knob.

The language of the Galixa Speech could be chosen between:

From the technical aspects the Galixa Speech is very similar to the TI-66 Calcu-Talk and the Orbit TI-34 using a standard calculator of the Texas Instruments product range fixed to a bottom housing with custom designed hardware. While the TI-66 Calcu-Talk uses the printer port as connection between the calculator and the speech electronics the huge printed circuit board (PCB) of the Galixa Speech uses the lines of the LCD-Display. Main component in the bottom shell is a Z-80 compatible microcontroller HD64180 surrounded by 8k Bytes Data memory and 256k Bytes combined Program- and Speech-Memory.

The next step in development was the Galixa Speech based on the Texas Instruments Galaxy 40x and the Galixa Braille with speech output and a 10-cell braille display. The first calculator with a refreshable braille cell output was the Braillotron TI-2550 II developed by Mr. Schoenherr.

A similar approach could be found in talking calculators like the TI-66 Calcu-Talk and the Orbit TI-34. 

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

© Joerg Woerner, December 22, 2002. No reprints without written permission.