DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM
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DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Mathe-Fix
| Date of introduction: | 1986 | 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 24 year 1989 |
| AC-Adapter: | Origin of manufacture: | Italy | |
| Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMP50C40A (CD54170) | |
| Memories: | |||
| Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
Think
about a Speak & Math without the fluorescent display trimmed to German language.
A slightly more powerful version was sold in other countries with the:
• France: le Calcul magique
• Italy: Dotto Conta-Parla
• United Kingdom: Maths marvel
Dismantling the Mathe-Fix
manufactured in June 1989 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 TMS50C40A
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 Mathe-Fix 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
| • TMP50C40A/CD54170: TSP50C50 VSP (Voice Synthesis Processor) with 8-bit microcontroller and 8k Bytes Mask ROM for both program and voice and 32 Bytes RAM |
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, December 5, 2001. No reprints without written permission.