DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Texas Instruments Speak & Spell / Professor (China)
Date of introduction: | 1990 | Display technology: | LCD |
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: | year 1991 |
AC-Adapter: | AC9199 | Origin of manufacture: | China |
Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TSP50C42 (CSM42024) Module: TSP60C80 (CM80004) |
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Memories: | |||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
Globalization. "Globalization describes a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade" (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
In other words: A friend in India pointed us in March 2010 to this rare Chinese Speak & Spell sold on an online auction in Canada. Thank you, Rohit.
We never heard about this unique Speak & Spell variation and
contacted even the legal department of Texas Instruments to learn finally that it was
not a counterfeit but an official product of Texas Instruments in China.
At first glance this Speak & Spell "Professor" looks like an adaption of the
Super Speak & Spell (91), but we missed
immediately the dial to adjust the display contrast known already from the 1st
generation of the Super Speak & Spell.
Dismantling
this rare Speak & Spell "Professor" manufactured in 1991 in China reveals immediately
some surprises. The printed circuit boards (PCBs) inside the housing of the 2nd
generation Speak & Spell introduced in 1980
look completely different from all PCBs we know so far but the technology is
obviously borrowed from the Super Speak & Spell.
The
electronics of the Speak & Spell "Professor" is centered around the
TSP50C42 Speech Synthesizer, a
single-chip solution combining the TSP50C50 speech synthesizer with an 8-bit
microcontroller, 16k Bytes Mask ROM for both program and voice and 128 Bytes +
16 Nibbles
RAM.
One Speak & Spell
"Professor" Cartridge Library is known:
Name | Grade | Words | Description | Module | Word List |
English Professor Cartridge II | not available |
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, December 3, 2007. No reprints without written permission.