DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM
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DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Language Tutor
| Date of introduction: | August, 1979 | Display technology: | Fluorescent |
| New price: | $250 | Display size: | 10 alphanumeric |
| Size: | 8.0" x 3.4" x 1.2" | ||
| Weight: | 9.9 ounces | Serial No: | 23108 |
| Batteries: | 4*AA cells | Date of manufacture: | wk 20 year 1981 |
| AC-Adapter: | AC9199 | Origin of manufacture: | USA (ATA) |
| Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMC0275, TMC0280 + Module: 4*TMC0350 | |
| Memories: | |||
| Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner | |
| Download manual: |
(FRENCH US: 6.2 MByte)
(GERMAN US: 14.5 MByte)
(SPANISH US: 13.7 MByte) |
Shortly
after the invention of the synthesizer technology to reproduce human speech with
tuned voices stored in ROM's (integrated circuits) this Language Tutor was
introduced. The product was later renamed to Language
Translator. With the Language Teacher a
cheaper version without the speaker was introduced the same time.
| An easy accessible "Solid State Speech™ Module" contained the software to translate from e.g. English, French and Spanish to spoken German. |  |
| Other modules to translate to spoken French or Spanish were available. |  |
| Texas Instruments promised optional modules in English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese for $50 each. We don't know which ones really appeared. |  |
| Please note on the picture the piggy-back soldering to give a total memory of four 128K ROM's. |  |
| From the technical point of view the Language Tutor is identical to the Speak & Spell introduced in the year 1978. Main difference that time was the selling price, a Speak & Spell was only a fraction of this Language Translator. |  |
| Unfortunatelly the brain of the Language Tutor is hidden under the display but we know how to use a soldering iron. |  |
| The Language Tutor makes use of a TMC0275 customized Microcomputer. Probably a member of the TMS1270 family. |  |
A typical module like the French Word/Phrase module stores 360
individual words and 78 phrases that are spoken and displayed and additional 239
individual words that are only displayed. The phrases are available with the
input of a two-digit number, e.g. "19" means "What is this?".
To give complete sentences you could link phrases together:
 | "7" + "209" + "433" will give you the french translation of "I would like" "a" "room". |
The individual words are entered letter by letter and translated to the target language. Six possibilities were available, but each module could speak only one language:
Mode |
FRENCH Module |
||
| Keyboard | Display | Speaker | |
| FRAN-ESPA | French | Spanish | n.a. |
| DEUT-FRAN | German | French | French |
| FRAN-ANGL | French | English | n.a. |
| ESPA-FRAN | Spanish | French | French |
| FRAN-ALLE | French | German | n.a. |
| ENGL-FREN | English | French | French |
Mode |
SPANISH Module |
||
| Keyboard | Display | Speaker | |
| ENGL-SPAN | English | Spanish | Spanish |
| FRAN-ESPA | French | Spanish | Spanish |
| DEUT-SPAN | German | Spanish | Spanish |
| ESPA-INGL | Spanish | English | n.a. |
| ESPA-FRAN | Spanish | French | n.a. |
| ESPA-ALEM | Spanish | German | n.a. |
Mode |
German Module |
||
| Keyboard | Display | Speaker | |
| FRAN-ALLE | French | German | German |
| ESPA-ALEM | Spanish | German | German |
| ENGL-GERM | English | German | German |
| DEUT-FRAN | German | French | n.a. |
| DEUT-SPAN | German | Spanish | n.a. |
| DEUT-ENGL | German | English | n.a. |
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, December 5, 2001. No reprints without written permission.