DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (Japan)
Date of introduction: | 1979 | Display technology: | Fluorescent |
New price: | Display size: | 8 alphanumeric | |
Size: | 10.0" x 7.0" x 1.3" 254 x 177 x 34 mm3 |
||
Weight: | 18.5 ounces, 526 grams | Serial No: | J011797 |
Batteries: | 4*C cells | Date of manufacture: | wk 08 year 1980 |
AC-Adapter: | ? | Origin of manufacture: | Japan |
Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMC0271, TMC0281, CD2321, CD2322 | |
Memories: | |||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
At
first glance this rare Speak & Spell
manufactured in Japan could be mixed-up with the Speak
& Math due to the grey housing.
Dismantling
this rare educational toy manufactured in February 1980 by (or for) Texas
Instruments in Japan reveals a printed circuit board (PCB) identical to the original US product but
with some interesting
modifications:
• The jack of the head phone is placed above the display. • The position of the jack for the power supply is slightly shifted. • The two TMC0351 and TMC0352 Speech ROMs are replaced with two TMC0350/CD2321 and TMC0350/CD2322 chips storing much simpler English words. |
The Integrated Circuits (ICs) of this Speak &
Spell (Japan) use 0.4” wide 28-pin SPDIP (Shrink Plastic Dual In-line Package
with a 0.07” / 1.778 mm lead pitch) and a 0.6” wide 40-pin SPDIP encapsulations
to safe real estate on the very clean layout of the PCB.
The design of the featured Speak & Spell (Japan) is centered around
four Integrated Circuits:
•
TMC0271: 4-bit microcontroller with 2k*9 Bits ROM and 9*64 Bits RAM • TMC0281: TMS5100 VSP (Voice Synthesis Processor) • TMC0350/CD2321, TMC0350/CD2322: TMS6100 VSM (Voice Synthesis Memory) with 128k Bits, each |
An inside view of some other dismantled Speak & Spell products could be found here.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, September 1, 2005. No reprints without written permission.