DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Touch & Discover School Edition
Date of introduction: | 1992 | Display technology: | n.a. |
New price: | Display size: | ||
Size: | 11.6" x 11.7" x
2.7" 295 x 298 x 69 mm3 |
||
Weight: | 30.9 ounces, 876 grams | Serial No: | |
Batteries: | 4*AA cells | Date of manufacture: | wk 47 year 1992 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | USA | |
Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TSP50C42 (CSM42042) Module:TSP60C80 (CM80008) |
|
Memories: | |||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
We know the extension "School Edition" from different calculators like the:
The
TI-30Xa SE introduced in
1995 with its tamper proofed
molded keys instead of the rubber keys and an extra window above the display and solar cells. The TI-30Xa SE introduced in 1999 and sporting the robust housing of the TI-32 Explorer Plus with the electronics of the TI-30Xa Solar. The failed TI-30Xa Solar School Edition introduced in 2005 and recalled immediately. |
These calculator all received some changes from the standard calculators like a more robust housing or disabled functionality.
But what are the modifications of this toy compared to the original Touch & Discover introduced almost 5 years earlier all about?
At first glance you'll notice three differences:
The housing of the Touch & Discover comes in blue instead of the standard bright orange It bears a "School Edition" Logo Both Expansion Slots on the left side of the Touch & Discover are occupied with two modules |
One of the two mentioned modules sports two connectors for an external power supply and a headphone. Obviously a welcome addition for a busy classroom
Dismantling this module reveals a small printed circuit board (PCB) holding
not only the two connectors but two additional spaces for Integrated Circuits
(ICs) in a DIP16 packages, most likely Speech ROMs with 256k Bits capacity,
each.
The second module is labeled "ENGLISH MODULE" and
contains the Speech ROM of the Touch & Discover School Edition. The only
visual differences other than the color to the an Expansion module from the
standard Touch & Discover is the shape of its label.
Dismantling this
module reveals a PCB with two spaces for Speech ROMs in SPDIP28 packages, while
the cartridges of the original Touch & Discover omitted the PCB by soldering the
Speech ROM directly to the connector. The "ENGLISH MODULE" of the featured Touch
& Discover School Edition uses
just one chip in place:
TSP60C80/CMM80008: VSM (Voice Synthesis Memory) with 1,024k Bits |
Dismantling this Touch & Discover manufactured in January 1990 by Texas Instruments in the United States reveals a very well engineered printed circuit board (PCB) with just two Integrated Circuits:
TSP50C42/CSM42005: TSP50C50 VSP (Voice Synthesis Processor) with 8-bit microcontroller and 8k Bytes Mask ROM for both program and voice and
128 Bytes + 16 Nibbles RAM TSP60C19/CMM19002 or TSP60C21/CMM21002: VSM (Voice Synthesis Memory) with 256k Bits |
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, June 27, 2005. No reprints without written permission.