DATAMATH

DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM

Texas Instruments Save & Learn Bank

Date of introduction:	(1991)	Display technology:
New price:		Display size:	n.a.
Size:	11.0" x 7.0" x 4.3" 279 x 178 x 109 mm³
Weight:	26.6 ounces, 754 grams	Serial No:
Batteries:	4*AA Alkaline	Date of manufacture:	mth 09 year 1991
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:	USA
Precision:		Integrated circuits:	TSP50C14 (CSM14005)
Memories:
Program steps:		Courtesy of:	Rohit Menon
		Download manual:	(US: 3.1M Bytes)

Fellow collector Rohit surprised us in Summer 2024 with these pictures of his rare Save & Learn Bank Educational Toy. From its manual: Save & Learn Bank is an electronic basic math tutor and bank with speech, music, and sound effects. It makes a favorite childhood pastime - dropping coins into a bank - a delightful, educational activity your child can do alone or share with you.

Save & Learn not only encourages children to save money, it also can help develop and reinforce basic math and money-counting skills:

• Identifying coins
• Associating coins with their values
• Combining coins for a specific total
• Combining coins for the same total
• Solving money related word problems
• Adding, subtracting, and multiplying
• Making change

Dismantling the featured Save & Learn Bank manufactured in September 1991 by Texas Instruments in the United States reveals a technology very similar to the various Touch & Talkies. The design of the Save & Learn Bank is centered around a TSP50C14 Voice Synthesis Processor (VSP) and supported by a74HC4078A 8-Input NOR/OR gate to read the lower paddle switches or the coins:

• TSP50C14/CSM14005: TSP50C50 VSP (Voice Synthesis Processor) with 8-bit microcontroller and 16k Bytes Mask ROM for both program and voice and 64 Bytes + 16 Nibbles RAM

The TSP50C14 is a cost-down version of the TSP50C11 used with most of Speaking Texas Instruments' Educational Toy Products and provided only half of the RAM size while maintaining its ROM size. The Date code 9131 located by Rohit on the chip indicates a manufacturing date of August and its © 1991 mark places the design between the Talking Peek-A-Boo Zoo and Talking Storytime Sorter.

Here at the Datamath Calculator Museum we knew since 2010 about the Save & Learn Bank from the sales catalog CL-1098 (Texas Instruments Learning Path - 1991 Educational Products) but it took us 15 years to see one in the wild. Thanks again, Rohit! Interesting to notice that the product does not bear the typical heat-stamped Date code on its backside, meaning it misses its legally important "Country of Origin" declaration. We assume that the product was meant to be manufactured like its siblings in China but never made it into series production. The Operating Instructions included with the featured products were far from final, having notices in hand writing and having an addendum with "Operating Tips", stating that the product sometimes just won't work.

Save & Learn bank is intended for children ages 4 to 8 years.

The Save & Learn Bank is featured in the Texas Instruments sales catalog CL-1098 dated 1991.

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