DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments MATH MAGIC
Date of introduction: | 1977 | Display technology: | LED-stick |
New price: | Display size: | 8 | |
Size: | 5.0"
x 3.5" x 1.1" 127 x 89 x 29 mm3 |
||
Weight: | 3.5 ounces, 99 grams | Serial No: | 8499159 |
Batteries: | 9V | Date of manufacture: | wk 26 year 1977 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | USA (MTA) | |
Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMC0907/ZA0379 | |
Memories: | Displays: | DIS713 | |
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
Texas Instruments introduced
with the beautiful MATH MAGIC educational toy a variation of the Little Professor.
The Little Professor gives you one of ten-thousands pre-programmed math
questions and you have to type the correct answer. The MATH MAGIC works
different: You have to enter the math question and its answer! The wizard then
gives you a visual feedback if the entered answer was correct with a "flashing"
display or not with an "EEE" display.
Dismantling
the featured MATH MAGIC with
Date code 2677 MTA and manufactured in June 1977
in Midland, Texas reveals an internal construction already known from the
original Little
Professor. The single-sided printed circuit board (PCB) is centered around a
TMC907/ZA0379 single-chip calculator circuit and powered by a 9V alkaline
battery. The keyboard with 5 rows of keys is borrow from the Little Professor
although the MATH MAGIC is using only 4 rows of keys. The PCB itself is
identical to the later models of the original Little Professor but lacks the
sliding switch to adjust its 4 grade levels.
The
TMC0907/ZA0379 chip is a member of the
TMS0970 Product Family introduced in March
1976 with the TI-1200 and based on
the TMS1000.
The TMS0970 integrated both segment and digit drivers to the TMS1000 feature set
allowing for highly cost-optimized designs and paving the way of four-banger
calculators with 4-key memory selling below the magic $10 threshold. While the
original TMS0970 chips were housed in a standard 0.6” wide 28-pin DIP (Plastic
Dual In-line Package with a 0.1” / 2.54 mm lead pitch), started Texas
Instruments in 1977 to use a smaller 0.4” wide 28-pin SPDIP (Shrink Plastic Dual
In-line Package with a 0.07” / 1.778 mm lead pitch) design. The marking
TMC0907NL ZA0379 BSP 7723 on the chip of the featured MATH MAGIC indicates Metal
Mask (ROM, Output PLA and Instruction Decoder PLA) Version ZA0379, Die Version
B, 28-pin SPDIP package, Production year 1977 and Production Week 23. The
Manufacturing Site Singapore is printed on the backside of the chip.
The MATH MAGIC was soon replaced by the cute WIZ-A-TRON.
Everything except the design of the frontplate and the color of the housing was kept identical.
Similar educational products are known from National
Semiconductor with the Quiz-Kid and Radio Shack with the wonderful
Monkey See. Both use simple
green and red indicators to state correct and wrong.
Don't miss the rare Battlestar Galactica introduced in 1979 - an almost perfect copy of the MATH MAGIC.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, December 5, 2001. No reprints without written permission.