DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Radio Shack Spellmaster
Date of introduction: | 1986 | Display technology: | Fluorescent |
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: | wk 31 year 1988 |
AC-Adapter: | AC9199 | Origin of manufacture: | USA |
Precision: | Integrated circuits: | TMC0271, TMC0281, CD2350 | |
Memories: | |||
Program steps: | Courtesy of: | Joerg Woerner |
This Radio Shack Spellmaster introduced in 1986 is 100% identical with the later Speak & Spell.
The
Radio Shack Spellmaster) was manufactured in July 1988 by Texas Instruments in
the United States and
represents the last design iteration of the Speak & Spell family. The printed circuit board (PCB) itself is
much smaller than the
original Speak & Spell design but sports an almost
identical design.
The
main components on the PCB are:
Microcontoller: The microcontroller is derived from the TMS1000 series and adopted to control both the keyboard, the display and to feed the speech synthesizer. This Speak & Spell uses a TMC0271 which interprets as TMC0270, ROM-Code 1.
Speech Synthesizer: The Speak & Spell series uses with the TMC0280 the first one-chip LPC speech synthesizer. Later refinements to the Speak & Spell chips resulted in the TMS5100, 5200 and 5220 Voice Synthesis Processors for commercial products. This Speak & Spell uses a TMC0281 which interprets as TMC0280, Version 1.
Speech ROM: Speech data is stored in a 128k ROM chip with the designation TMC0350. This Speak & Spell uses a CD2350 which is actually an identical VSM (Voice Speech Memory) from a more recent manufacturing process.
In 1988 we knew a total of 10 different plug-in modules for
the Speak & Spell, a comprehensive overview including the wordlists could be
found here.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, August 13, 2010. No reprints without written permission.