Texas Instruments PS-5400 Translator

The PS-5400 Translator was introduced about two years after the first Pocket Translator PS-5600. Instead the foldable housing with a wide display line a housing similar to the early Databanks, e.g. the PS-2400 was used.

The internal memory stores over 5,000 words and 940 small sentences in 15 different categories. Each word is available in five different languages:  

By simply choosing a word or sentence in one of the five languages the other four languages can be displayed.

The PS-5400 integrated not only a Translator, but a calculator, a clock with alarm functions and even the world-time of 23 cities.

The hardware of the PS-5600 uses an identical microcomputer to the one found in the TI-5128 desktop calculator but added a huge memory to store all the words and sentences. 

The Toshiba TMP0211F single-chip microcomputer located in the PS-5400 is probably a 4-bit design similar to the TMP04xx family used in most calculator of that era.

The IEC10503 ROM stores more than 5,000 words and 940 small sentences in five different languages. Think about 10 characters per word, 30 characters per sentence and 5 bits per character by 5 languages and you would need about 1,955,000 bits or 256k Byte. Pretty impressive in 1992!

The featured PS-5400 was manufactured in Taiwan by Inventec Corporation, production was later shifted to Malaysia.

A more powerful Translator was available with the PS-5800. 

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

© Joerg Woerner, June 25, 2002. No reprints without written permission.