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Texas Instruments Les Maths Magiques

Date of introduction:  1982 Display technology:   
New price:    Display size:  n.a
Size:  5.4" x 9.4" x  1.55" 
 136 x 216 x 40 mm3		    
Weight:  7.7 ounces, 266 grams Serial No:  
Batteries:  9V Date of manufacture:  wk 46 year 1982
AC-Adapter:   Origin of manufacture:  Italy
Precision:   Integrated circuits:  CD2801A (TMC0281), CP3447, CD62173
Memories:      
Program steps:   Courtesy of:  Joerg Woerner

At first glance this rare Les Maths Magiques sold in France seems to be a variation of the Speak & Spell Compact and its sibling Speak & Write. 

But the keyboards of these two products type the characters "A"..."Z" while the Les Maths Magiques reads the numbers "0"..."9" like the original Speak & Math introduced already in 1980.

If you compare the keyboard with the later Maths marvel and its siblings le Calcul magique, Dotto Contaparla and Mathe-Fix you solve the mystery:

Product line Original product Compact edition
SPELL Speak & Spell Speak & Spell Compact
MATH Speak & Math Les Maths Magiques

We actually discovered the the unknown "Speak & Math Compact" sandwiched between the original Speak & Math and the le Calcul magique introduced in 1986 and using much simpler technology.

Dismantling this Les Maths Magiques manufactured in November 1982 by Texas Instruments in their Rieti, Italy facility reveals indeed the technology of the Speak & Math / Speak & Spell products.

The printed circuit board (PCB) of the educational toy sports well-known components:

• CP3447: Customized 4-bit TMS1000 single-chip microcontroller
• CD2801A: TMC0281 VSP (Voice Synthesis Processors)
• CD62173: TMC0350 VSM (Voice Synthesis Memory) with 128k Bits



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

© Joerg Woerner, July 12, 2005. No reprints without written permission.