They may very well still sell it. I built a parallel port speech sythethiser
from one and plans from one of the then popular computer or electronics
magazines. I may even have it still in one the boxes that I packed way back
and haven't since opened. It had the same phonetics system as some of the
SoundBlaster chips and had the same monotone speak that the old Dr. SBaitso
and that Hawkings' synth have. Nonetheless it was cool to hear speech from
my 8088 then.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Richard Erlacher
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 7:48 AM
To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Sound chips
Back in the early '80's they sold that speech chip in a blister pack. I
think
the crux was getting the 3.12 MHz (I remember that only because getting one
was
such a PITA) crystal, though, for which the device was specified, and which
had
to come from somewhere else at the time. Aside from having to translate the
timing intervals, I think a color-burst crystal would probably work with
this
device, though. A 10-12% increase in pitch wouldn't make much difference as
far
as intellibility is concerned.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Hellige" <jhellige_at_earthlink.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: Sound chips
> >Incidentally, Tandy/Radio Shack sold a speech/sound cartridge for the
> >CoCo. It contained a microcontroller, an SPO256 speech chip and an
> >AY-3-891x sound chip.
>
> Didn't they sell the SPO256 alone, among all the other single
> IC's? I know that even recently I've seen their 'speech chip' on the
> shelf but have never bothered to notice exactly who's chip it is.
>
> Jeff
>
> --
> Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems:
> Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File
> http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
>
>
Received on Fri Jun 15 2001 - 08:40:35 BST