DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments La Dictée Magique (Type 2)
Date of introduction: | 1986 | 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 42 year 1987 |
AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | Italy | |
Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMC0270/CD2702, TMC0280/CD2801, CD2352 | |
Memories: | |||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner | |
Download manual: | (FR: 1.8M Bytes) |
This La Dictée Magique model introduced in 1986 got a slightly changed keyboard design. View the previous design here.
The
pictured La Dictée Magique was manufactured in October 1987 and
represents the last design iteration of the Speak & Spell family. The printed circuit board (PCB) itself is
much smaller than the
original Speak & Spell design but sports an almost
identical design.
The
main components on the PCB are:
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 La Dictée Magique 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 La Dictée Magique 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 La Dictée Magique uses a CD2352 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 five French speaking "Module Magique" were introduced. A comprehensive overview including the wordlists could be found here.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, October 28, 2008. No reprints without written permission.