DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Grillo Parlante
Date of introduction: | 1983 | Display technology: | Fluorescent |
New price: | Display size: | 9 alphanumeric | |
Size: | 10.0" x 7.0" x 1.3" 254 x 177 x 34 mm3 |
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Weight: | 16.7 ounces, 474 grams | Serial No: | |
Batteries: | 4*C cells | Date of manufacture: | wk 39 year 1988 |
AC-Adapter: | AC9199 | Origin of manufacture: | USA |
Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMC0270/CD2702, TMC0280/CD2801, CD62190 | |
Memories: | |||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner | |
Download manual: | (EU: 2.5M Bytes) |
Nothing else than the Italian speaking version of the Speak & Spell (Type 3) with a different voice.
Don't miss the German Buddy, French La Dictée Magique and Spanish Speak & Spell.
The
pictured Grillo Parlante was distributed in the 80s like some other Texas
Instruments products by Clementoni.
Most
Grillo Parlante and all Dotto Contaparla on the Italian market seem to be from
Clementoni.
The
printed circuit board (PCB) of this Grillo Parlante manufactured in 1988 is
identical with the Speak & Spell (Type 3) but sports slightly different
components:
Microcontoller: The microcontroller is derived from the TMS1000 series and adopted to control both the keyboard, the display and to feed the speech synthesizer. This Grillo Parlante uses a CD2702 which interprets as TMC0270, ROM-Code 2.
Speech Synthesizer: The Speak & Spell series uses with the TMC0280 the first one-chip LPC speech synthesizer. Later refinements to the Speak & Spell chips resulted in the TMS5100, 5200 and 5220 Voice Synthesis Processors for commercial products. This Grillo Parlante uses a CD2801 which interprets as TMC0280, Version 1.
Speech ROM: Speech data is stored in
a 128k ROM chip with the designation
TMC0350. This Grillo Parlante uses a
CD62190 which is actually an identical VSM (Voice Speech Memory) from a more
recent manufacturing process.
In addition to the
ten different English speaking Speak & Spell Cartridge Libraries
and five French speaking "Module Magique"
a Italian speaking "SuperModulo" was
introduced exclusive for the Grillo Parlante:
Name | Grade | Words | Description | Module | Word List |
SuperModulo | 169 |
Thanks for the correct date of introduction, Beatrice!
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, June 20, 2003. No reprints without written permission.