14 Feb
2008
14 Feb
'08
2:04 a.m.
--------Original Message:
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 07:53:22 +0000
From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at usap.gov>
Subject: Re: Digitalker, SP0256, and SC-01 speech chips (was Re:
Digitalker Information)
On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 01:33:42AM -0500, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Sunday 03 February 2008 16:54, Scanning wrote:
> Pete,
>
> The SP0256 had the best sounding speech I think ( it uses twice as many
> speech sounds ( 128 allophones ? ) as the SC-01 only had 64 phonemes )).
59 Allophones plus 6 pauses, according to the datasheet.
<snip>
-ethan
---------Reply:
I built a speech synthesizer for my PETs many years ago using the SP2056;
nothing to it.
I also used a Votrax PSS to announce users logging in to a Cromemco "BBS"
and today still have a PC with an SP0256 announcing Caller ID info on incoming
calls; not really that much difference in the sound.
Keep in mind that the SP0256 is only an allophone generator; although there
were expansion ROMs available, for text-to-speech you needed something like
the CTS256-AL2, which was a PIC (yes, GI made PICs in the '70s!) programmed
as an ASCII > allophone processor (unless you were only speaking pre-programmed
sequences which you could hard-code in your program).
mike
14 Feb
14 Feb
3:51 a.m.
New subject: Digitalker, SP0256, and SC-01 speech chips (was Re: Digitalker Information)
On Thu, 2008-02-14 at 02:04 -0500, M H Stein wrote:
Keep in mind that the SP0256 is only an allophone
generator; although there
were expansion ROMs available, for text-to-speech you needed something like
the CTS256-AL2, which was a PIC (yes, GI made PICs in the '70s!) programmed
PIC as is Arizona Microchip PIC, or PIC as in something else?
Gordon
10:35 a.m.
On Feb 14, 2008, at 3:51 AM, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
The very same. The architecture made its debut in the 1970s with
the SMS (later Signetics) 8X300, which many of us have seen on disk
controller boards.
Here's a snippet of a classiccmp post of mine from back in 2001:
------------
GI adapted the SMS/Signetics 8x300 for use as a peripheral interface
controller (PIC) to augment the poor I/O of its CP1600 processor. GI's
IC division was spun off to form Arizona Microchip Technology (sound
familiar?) in the mid 80's, producing EPROMs, EEPROMs, and..."PIC"
processors.
------------
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Keep in mind
that the SP0256 is only an allophone generator;
although there
were expansion ROMs available, for text-to-speech you needed
something like
the CTS256-AL2, which was a PIC (yes, GI made PICs in the '70s!)
programmed
PIC as is Arizona Microchip PIC, or PIC as in something else?
10:58 a.m.
On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 10:35:48AM -0500, Dave McGuire wrote:
On Feb 14, 2008, at 3:51 AM, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
The very same. The architecture made its debut in the 1970s with
the SMS (later Signetics) 8X300, which many of us have seen on disk
controller boards.
Here's a snippet of a classiccmp post of mine from back in 2001:
------------
GI adapted the SMS/Signetics 8x300 for use as a peripheral interface
controller (PIC) to augment the poor I/O of its CP1600 processor. GI's
IC division was spun off to form Arizona Microchip Technology (sound
familiar?) in the mid 80's, producing EPROMs, EEPROMs, and..."PIC"
processors.
------------
Well every day's a school day! Does this mean that cards that use the
8X300 chips could be updated to more modern hardware? Is it possible
that MSCP code could already more-or-less exist for the PIC
architecture?
Gordon
Keep in
mind that the SP0256 is only an allophone generator;
although there
were expansion ROMs available, for text-to-speech you needed
something like
the CTS256-AL2, which was a PIC (yes, GI made PICs in the '70s!)
programmed
PIC as is Arizona Microchip PIC, or PIC as in something else? 
12:08 p.m.
New subject: Digitalker Information
I appreciate all of the docs on the DigiTalker. It does appear my ROM
#2 is dead, and it also appears the ROMs are specific to this design
(Word #8 is JAMECO, for example). Thus, I'm wondering if someonw out
there has dumps of some generic Digitalker ROMs, and I'll contact
JAMECO, though I suspect they long ago lost information on this design.
Jim
1:01 p.m.
On Feb 14, 2008, at 10:58 AM, gordonjcp at gjcp.net wrote:
Well every day's a school day! Does this mean that cards that use the
8X300 chips could be updated to more modern hardware? Is it possible
that MSCP code could already more-or-less exist for the PIC
architecture?
Doubtful, as it's just the same architecture, and far from the
same implementation. The 8X30x chips are bipolar, if memory serves.
But either way, I'm not sure what the point would be, aside from
possibly building new boards using an existing 8X30x MSCP
implementation.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
PIC as is Arizona Microchip PIC, or PIC as in
something else?
The very same. The architecture made its debut in the 1970s with
the SMS (later Signetics) 8X300, which many of us have seen on disk
controller boards.
Here's a snippet of a classiccmp post of mine from back in 2001:
------------
GI adapted the SMS/Signetics 8x300 for use as a peripheral
interface
controller (PIC) to augment the poor I/O of its CP1600 processor.
GI's
IC division was spun off to form Arizona Microchip Technology (sound
familiar?) in the mid 80's, producing EPROMs, EEPROMs, and..."PIC"
processors.
------------ 
1:53 p.m.
New subject: Digitalker, SP0256, and SC-01 speech chips (was Re: Digitalker
On Thu, 2008-02-14 at 02:04 -0500, M H Stein wrote:
The former. I forget what the CTS256 'really' was, but it was pretty
clearly a programmed PIC.
The 1654 is a lot older than many people realise
-tony
Keep in mind that the SP0256 is only an allophone
generator; although there
were expansion ROMs available, for text-to-speech you needed something like
the CTS256-AL2, which was a PIC (yes, GI made PICs in the '70s!) programmed
PIC as is Arizona Microchip PIC, or PIC as in something else?
5981
days inactive
5981
days old
6 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
brain＠jbrain.com -
dm561＠torfree.net -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
mcguire＠neurotica.com