DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM
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DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Dotto Conta-Parla
| Date of introduction: | Display technology: | ||
| New price: | Display size: | n.a. | |
| Size: | 4.3" x 6.9" x 1.25" 108 x 176 x 32 mm3 |
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| Weight: | 7.7 ounces, 219 grams | Serial No: | |
| Batteries: | 4*AA cells | Date of manufacture: | wk 11 year 1986 |
| AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | Italy | |
| Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMS50C40 (CM54122) | |
| Memories: | |||
| Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
Nothing
else than a Maths marvel trimmed to Italian language.
A slightly simpler model was
sold in Germany with the Mathe-Fix.
Dismantling the Dotto Conta-Parla manufactured in March 1986 by Texas Instruments in their Rieti, Italy facility reveals a small surprise:
The printed circuit board (PCB) of the educational toy is centered around a TMS50C40 standard Voice Synthesis Processor (VSP)
chip. We know this technology already from the Little Maestro
and its siblings Speak & Music, La Musique Magique
and Fonillo Suonaparla introduced in 1986, too.
The single-sided PCB is of the Dotto Conta-Parlo is labeled "MINI-MATH", obviously a reference to the original
Speak & Math introduced by Texas Instruments already in 1980
and not related to the Minimath
calculator developed in 1971.
The compact design of the PCB is centered around just one Integrated Circuits
| • TMS50C40/CM54122: TSP50C50 VSP (Voice Synthesis Processor) with 8-bit microcontroller and 8k Bytes Mask ROM for both program and voice and 32 Bytes RAM |
The Dotto Conta-Parla was distributed in the 80s like some other Texas Instruments products by Clementoni.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, March 15, 2004. No reprints without written permission.