DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM
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DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Music-Star (Prototype)
| Date of introduction: | (1988) | Display technology: | |
| New price: | Display size: | n.a. | |
| Size: | 9.1" x 11.1" x
1.2" 231 x 282 x 30 mm3 |
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| Weight: | 18.2 ounces, 515 grams | Serial No: | |
| Batteries: | 4*AA cells | Date of manufacture: | wk 35 year 1987 |
| AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | USA | |
| Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TSE50C4X-1GB, TMS27C128 | |
| Memories: | |||
| Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner | |
| Download manual: | 
(DE: 14.6M Bytes) |
The
Music-Star educational toy was introduced in 1988
for the German market, about two years after the English speaking original Speak
& Music and its International siblings La Musique
Magique (French Voice), Fonillo Suonaparla (Italian Voice) and Speak
& Music (British Voice). It is based product on Texas Instruments' speech synthesizer technology and generates a lot of
different sounds and stores them into an internal memory to replay.
Dismantling this early Music-Star prototype manufactured in
December 1987 88 by Texas Instruments in the United
States for the German Marketing Department in Freising near Munich reveals a
big surprise - it uses two printed circuit boards (PCBs) crammed into the
housing.
The Main-PCB looks very familiar to us, it is
actually from the original Speak & Music with both the TMS50C40/CM54129 Voice
Synthesis Processor (VSP) and CF60034 Port-Extender not populated and wired
directly to the second PCB.
The second PCB with rather
unusual looking Integrated Circuits (ICs) is labeled "50C42 Emulator" and sports some small switches and a large but unused connector.
The 50C42 Emulator PCB and uses two ICs:
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• TSE50C4X-1GB: TSP50C4X Bond-Out VSP (Voice Synthesis Processor) with 8-bit microcontroller and
external ROM for both program and voice and 128 Bytes + 16 Nibbles RAM in a large PGA housing • TMS27C128: EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM) with 16k Bytes capacity in a ceramic package |
Comparing the short-lived TMS50C40(A) introduced in 1986 and its successors from the TMS50C4X Series introduced in 1987 shows quite a few differences including a more flexible I/O Port structure of the latter parts. We assume that the CF60034 used with the Speak & Music and its siblings is a simple Port-Expander for the TMS50C40 to sample the keyboard of the toys.
A total of 12 well-known German children songs are stored inside the memory toy:
| • Ihr Kinderlein, kommet • Was soll das bedeuten • Ich geh mit meiner Laterne • Fuchs, Du hast die Gans gestohlen • Weisst Du, wieviel Sternlein stehen • Wer will fleissige Handwerker sehen • Es tanzt ein Bi-Ba-Butzemann • Ein Männlein steht im Walde • Es war eine Mutter • Alle Vögel sind schon da • Im Märzen der Bauer • Winter, ade! |
Other products in the Speak & line cover spelling and reading words. Compare this Music-Star with Speak & Math, Speak & Spell and Speak & Read.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, December 5, 2001. No reprints without written permission.