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Texas Instruments TI-2550 Italy (2nd design)

Date of introduction:  September 1975 Display technology:  LED-stick
New price:  $99.95, DM 298.00 Display size:  8
Size:  6.5" x 3.2" x 1.8"
 165 x 80 x 45 mm3
   
Weight:  7.8 ounces, 220 grams Serial No:  K 15518
Batteries:  3*AA NiCd or 4*AA Alkaline Date of manufacture:  wk 43 year 1975
AC-Adapter:  AC9130 or AC9120 Origin of manufacture:  USA
Precision:   Integrated circuits:  TMS0601, 2*SN75494
Memories:  1 Displays:  DIS134B (9*DIS279)
Program steps:   Courtesy of:  Peter Muckermann († April 21, 2021)
    Download manual:   (US: 1.8M Bytes)

Texas Instruments Introduced on January 10th, 1974 with the TI-2550 their first basic four-function calculator with independent memory and despite its short lifecycle of only 18 months went the calculator through various redesigns to lower its manufacturing costs.

Dismantling the featured TI-2550 manufactured in October 1975 by Texas Instruments in their Rieti, Italy facility reveals a complex design with three printed circuit boards (PCBs) for main electronics, display, and keyboard powered by either three AA-sized rechargeable NiCd or four disposable Alkaline batteries. The Main-PCB sports not only five minus two familiar looking Integrated Circuits (ICs) but a myriad of discrete components in a from the Datamath well known arrangement:

Calculating Unit - TMS0601 single-chip calculator circuit
Display Driver - 2 (not populated)*SN75493 Segment Drivers and 2*SN75494 Digit Drivers
Clock signal generation for TMS0601 with discrete components
Power converter with discrete components and transformer
19-pin connector to the Display-PCB
13-pin connector to the Keyboard-PCB

Calculating Unit: The TI-2550 makes use of the TMS0601 single-chip calculator circuit - here with an unusual TMC0601 marking - derived from the TMS1802, better known as first "calculator-on-a-chip" but with a Read-Only program Memory increased from 320 Words to 384 Words x 11 Bits.

Comparing the feature sets of the TMS0119 (TI-2500), TMS0601 (TI-2550), TMS0120 (SR-10) and TMS0602 (SR-11) shows the limitations of the TMS0100/TMS0600 and explains the move from Texas Instruments towards architectures with scalable ROM configurations like the TMS0200 Building Blocks for Desktop Calculators introduced in 1973 but most important to the TMC0500 Building Blocks for Scientific and Programmable Calculators introduced with the "Slide Rule" calculator SR-50 in January 1974 and leading all the way to the legendary TI Programmable 59 and the amazing SR-60A Prompting Desktop calculator:

Features/
Device
[0]...[9]
[.]
[+] [−] [×] [÷]
[=]
[+/−] [C] [CE] [CONST] [F/2/4] [%] [Memory] [EE] [1/x] [x2] [sqr X] [pi] Display
Format
TMS0119 * *   * * *               E88888888
TMS0601 * *   * * * * *           E88888888
TMS0120 * * * *         * * * *   E88888888-88
TMS0602 * * * * *       * * * * * E88888888-88

Display: Texas Instruments introduced together with the TMS0100 calculator chip two pre-configured LED (Light-Emitting-Diode) modules (DIS40, DIS95) based on the TIL360 arrays and the corresponding segment drivers (SN75491) and digit drivers (SN75492). Most early 8-digit designs made use of these parts exhibiting two disadvantages:

SN75491, SN75492 - Limited to designs with 5 or 6 batteries
TIL360 - Cost driver number one in the calculator design

Texas Instruments consequently introduced with the SN75493 and SN75494 revised display drivers optimized for designs with 3 or 4 batteries but the true innovation could be observed with the technology how to manufacture the 9-digit LED displays used with early four-function calculators:

1972: Two Hermetic Multi-Digit Calculator Numeric Seven-Segment LED Displays soldered onto a PCB
1973: Nine Seven-Segment LED Displays soldered onto a PCB
1974: Nine Seven-Segment LED Display Chips bonded onto a PCB
1975: Nine small Seven-Segment LED Display Chips bonded onto a PCB with additional magnifying lens
1976: LED Displays near extinguished by VFD and LCD technology

The featured TI-2550 manufactured in October 1975 in Rieti, Italy makes use of a DIS134B Nine-Digit display module with 9 individual DIS279 Seven-Segment displays soldered onto a PCB and magnified with a clear plastic lens. The display module is connected with 19 pins to the Main-PCB.

Display Driver: The Main-PCB of the featured TI-2550 manufactured in October 1975 provides space for a total of four Display Drivers but has the Segment Drivers not populated and instead shorting them with additional PCB traces not present on the original PCB layout. We assume that the "D" marking printed onto the TMC0601 single-chip calculator circuit indicates its tested capability to drive the segments of the display directly. The two SN75493 Segment Drivers for four segments, each and the two SN75494 Digit Drivers for six digits, each are improvements of the original SN75491/SN75492 chips introduced with the TMS1802 but allow for operation at lower voltages.

Clock: While the nominal clock frequency of the TMS0600 single-chip calculator circuit is specified with 250 kHz, uses the TI-2550 Version 1 the approach of a dynamic switching of the clock frequency for the TMS0601 single-chip calculator circuit to conserve power between calculations. The astable multivibrator idles at a frequency of around 90 kHz but increases with the detection of a depressed keybutton for a short time to about 200 kHz to reduce execution time of the operations. Three diodes are connected between the keymatrix inputs KN (numbers), KO (operations) and KQ (Memory) and the oscillator to catch every entry of a number or function keys for a impressive reduction of power consumption:

Mode Display Current
VBAT = 6.0 V
Clock Frequency
Idle 0 56 mA 90 kHz
Calculating 0 76 mA 200 kHz
Idle E88888888 119 mA 90 kHz
Calculating E88888888 139 mA 200 kHz

A similar circuitry was introduced in August 1973 for the TI-2500 Datamath calculator with the introduction of the TI-2500 Version 3 but using only two diodes for the KN and KO lines.

Please notice that the PCB of the featured TI-2550 Version 2 manufactured in October 1975 in Rieti, Italy is missing the three diodes, resistor and capacitor to switch the clock frequency of the TMS0601 and uses instead a fixed clock frequency of 135 kHz resulting due to the missing Segment Driver ICs in a similar power consumption compared to the TI-2550 Version 1:

Mode Display Current
VBAT = 6.0 V
Clock Frequency
Idle/Calc. 0 56 mA 135 kHz
Idle/Calc. E88888888 129 mA 135 kHz

Power Supply: The TI-2550 is powered by three AA-sized rechargeable NiCd or four disposable Alkaline batteries resulting in a typical voltage between 3.0 V (completely depleted cells) and 6.0 V (new cells). The Main-PCB hosts a power converter circuit centered around an astable multivibrator, step-up transformer and various diodes and capacitors to generate the supply voltages for the TMS0601 chip and the clock oscillator. We observed in the featured TI-2550 Version 2 manufactured in October 1975 rather asymmetrical output voltages of VSS = 6.4 V and VGG = -8.3 V for the electronics.

Keyboard: The Klixon™ type keyboard looks very similar to the Datamath calculator with some additional keys placed in the upper line. Later calculators like the SR-11 changed the style of the keys but kept the extreme wedge-style of the housing that was adopted for the scientific desktop calculators SR-20 and SR-22, too. The last portable scientific calculator with this wedge-design was introduced in October 1974 with the SR-16.

Not only the used LED-modules changed during the life cycle of the TI-2550 calculator, a later cost-reduction redesign introduced a revised Main-PCB and we differentiate between four different TI-2550 Versions manufactured in the United States between February 1974 and October 1975:

Version Display
Type
Display
Driver
Clock
Generation
TI-2550 V1D1 single modules
 with lens
4 ICs Dynamic
TI-2550 V1D2 single chips
without lens
4 ICs Dynamic
TI-2550 V1D3 single chips
with lens
4 ICs Dynamic
TI-2550 V2D3 single chips
with lens
2 ICs Static

And where does this TI-2550 manufactured in October 1975 in Rieti, Italy fit here? Nowhere! While the PCB is identical to the TI-2550 Version 2 from the United States, is its DIS134B Nine-Digit display module preceding the DIS134C located in the very first TI-2550 V1D1 and uses the DIS279 Seven-Segment displays from the SR-50:

Version Display
Type
Display
Driver
Clock
Generation
TI-2550 V2D0
Italy
single modules
with lens
2 ICs Static

Here at the Datamath Calculator Museum we classify the featured TI-2550 as PCB Type 2 and Display Type 0.

A close relative of the TI-2550 was sold through the American department store Montgomery Ward. Compare the TI-2550 with the P200.

The same housing and a very similar keyboard was used by the TI-150.

Datamath™ is a trademark of Texas Instruments.

 

The TI-2550 is featured in the Texas Instruments Deutschland GmbH leaflet ER-1975 dated 1975.

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

© Joerg Woerner, October 23, 2003. No reprints without written permission.