[sci.electronics] Speech Synthesizer Info

tedk@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Kekatos) (02/18/88)

Review and Information on B.G Micro Text to Speech Board.
------ --- ----------- -- --------- ---- -- ------ ------

         COMPUTALKER SPEECH SYNTHESIZER
         ----------- ------ -----------

from  B.G. MICRO  (214) 271-5546  (Dallas TX)


I purchased the B.G. MICRO  Computalker board for $89.95. 
I have it set-up in a "stand alone" type operation. I have
it proped-up between books on my book shelf. I built my 
own +5,+12,-12 power supply that doubles as a book-end. 
I use a "ribbon" modem cable to connect it to one 
of several different computers.

This Board uses the General Instruments SPO256-AL2 and CTS256-AL2
chip set. I think that these are the same chips that Radio Shack
sells. These chips have been mentioned in several books on
voice synthesis.

The board uses one slot (for power only) and requires
one serial com port connection. The board can except ASCII TEXT
from any computer (or terminal) with RS-232 port. There is a 
1700 byte input buffer with hardware handshake signals. The board
is shipped with a (PC) Demonstration Disk, documentation,
and Schematics. The board has a speaker and a RCA type phone
jack for external speakers.

The serial port on the board can be set to one of seven baud rates
up to 9600 baud. The Computalker begins speaking the TEXT after
it receives a CR (0x0d) character. 

The TEXT to SPEECH program within the Computalker is limited
but "Okay". It has trouble with numerical speech. Everything 
must be spelled out. Such as "$104" must be sent to the
Computalker as "1 hundred and 4 dollars". 

The voice quality is good compared to most voice synthesizers. 
It sounds a bit "nasal", and take some time to get use to. 
It is best if there are spaces between words and 
difficult to understand words are spelled "phonetically". 
This take some experimenting. 

I have material on phonetic speech with PHONEMES and material 
on using/constructing ALLOPHONE speech with the 
SPO256-AL2, but I haven't found a way to by-pass the
text to speech conversion program. 





Ted G. Kekatos
backbone!ihnp4!ihuxv!tedk                     (312) 979-0804
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Indian Hill South, IX-1F-460
Naperville & Wheaton Roads - Naperville, Illinois. 60566 USA

tedk@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Kekatos) (02/19/88)

In article <2459@ihuxv.ATT.COM> tedk@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Kekatos) writes:
>Review and Information on B.G Micro Text to Speech Board.
>------ --- ----------- -- --------- ---- -- ------ ------
>         COMPUTALKER SPEECH SYNTHESIZER
>         ----------- ------ -----------
>from  B.G. MICRO  (214) 271-5546  (Dallas TX)
>
>I purchased the B.G. MICRO  Computalker board for $89.95. 



The Computalker is now priced at $69.95


Ted G. Kekatos
backbone!ihnp4!ihuxv!tedk                     (312) 979-0804
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Indian Hill South, IX-1F-460
Naperville & Wheaton Roads - Naperville, Illinois. 60566 USA

gil@icus.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) (02/21/88)

In article <2459@ihuxv.ATT.COM> tedk@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Kekatos) writes:
>Review and Information on B.G Micro Text to Speech Board.
>------ --- ----------- -- --------- ---- -- ------ ------
>...
>This Board uses the General Instruments SPO256-AL2 and CTS256-AL2
>chip set. I think that these are the same chips that Radio Shack
>sells. These chips have been mentioned in several books on
>voice synthesis.

I got Matell Electronics' Intellivision Intellivoice cartridge for Christmas
a few years ago when they were cheap so that I could take it apart and see
how it worked (I liked their use of male and female voices in the games!).

I noticed that the speech synthesis is performed by the SPO256-012 (is this
different from the ...-AL2?) and an unknown 40 pin chip, also manufactured
by GI and labelled SPB-640.  Questions:  Are the SPO256-AL2 and -012 the same
chip?  Where can I get information about the SPB-640?  I tried tracing the
PC board by hand ( *:-{ ) but I hit some dead-ends since I had no info about
the internals of the intellivision game unit.  Is there any information about
the hardware/software inside the game available?

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance to anyone who posts/emails
a reply since I sometimes am lax about personal replies.

+------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
| Gil Kloepfer, Jr.                  | Net-Address:                           |
| ICUS Computer Group, Systems Dvlp. | {boulder,ihnp4,talcott}!icus!gil       |
| P.O. Box 1                         | Voice-net: (516) 968-6860              |
| Islip Terrace, New York  11752     | Internet: gil@icus.UUCP                |
+------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+

krc@cs.purdue.EDU (Kenny "RoboBrother" Crudup) (02/23/88)

In article <264@icus.UUCP>, gil@icus.UUCP (Gil Kloepfer Jr.) writes:
> I got Matell Electronics' Intellivision Intellivoice cartridge for Christmas
> a few years ago when they were cheap so that I could take it apart and see
> how it worked (I liked their use of male and female voices in the games!).

You did that too? My little brother bitched and moaned for a whole month!!
 
> I noticed that the speech synthesis is performed by the SPO256-012 (is this
> different from the ...-AL2?)

Yes, and no. Different masking. The -AL2 has allophones masked into it,
and the -012, -017 (Radio Shit talking clock), -034 (?) (Some kind of game-
this was 4-5 years ago) had different masks, usually whole words/phrases.

> and an unknown 40 pin chip, also manufactured
> by GI and labelled SPB-640.  Questions:  Are the SPO256-AL2 and -012 the same
> chip?  Where can I get information about the SPB-640?

The SPB-640 is GI's attempt at getting more than the maskable limit of
rom onto the talker. See, what happens is you feed it (the '256) a 6 
bit data address, and this was the start index into a ROM. It then
began 'playing' a speech program. This way, the sound 'oh' and the
phrase 'Attention: Attention:' were accessed the same way. 

There was a provision for getting some external storage, but it was
in a weird format, serial of some nature, so that you could string
whole bunches of ext roms together (probably helped in the way the
device used it, too). The SPB-640 was a way of making standard
(address/data/*CE) type devices work with the '256. I had one,
but since I never got the format internal to the '256.....

I have a GI tech manual (they are in Indianapolis) which they sent me
for free (bullshit around like you're important :-). I got my AL2, and
the CT-something-or-other 40 pin that turns serial ascii words into
allophone codes for it. (Shall we play a game?) 

> I tried tracing the
> PC board by hand ( *:-{ ) but I hit some dead-ends since I had no info about
> the internals of the intellivision game unit.  Is there any information about
> the hardware/software inside the game available?

Yeah. The Intellivision (the original- I don't know about ITV-II) used the
GI 1600, a micro that ranks up there with the 1802. (I used to have both) :-(
Great for coffee makers, and traffic signals (there goes my free GI shit).
The GI tech manual tells a little about that too, and if you have time to
figure it out, you may get somewhere.

But- if you get the hardware man from them, rip out the sound chip. That
thing is *awesome*! No digital speech, but it is the  same chip (in a
different package- no i/o ports) as the one in the Atari 520/1040, and
similar to the one in the Commode-Door 64.

> Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance to anyone who posts/emails
> a reply since I sometimes am lax about personal replies.
> | Gil Kloepfer, Jr.

Yeah, me too. I hate it when they give me *work* to do!

-- 
Kenny "_R_o_b_o_B_r_o_t_h_e_r" Crudup		krc@arthur.cs.purdue.edu
Purdue University CS Dept.		
W. Lafayette, IN 47907			1-31-88. A great day for football,
+1 317 494 7842				and Black Americans. Yo Dougie!