[sdiy] TTS chips

[mirwin at qouest.net]

Those SP0256 chips were made by General Instruments in the early 
1980's... Radio Shack sold 2 versions - one was the "make it say 
anything" SP0256-AL2 with allophones in internal ROM... the other was 
the "talking clock" version which told the time, played wake-up tunes, 
and told you to "hurry up, please!"... Radio Shack also sold a ASCII to 
 speech controller for the AL2 version (this was actually one of the 
early NMOS PIC microcontrollers, designed by GI, still have one kicking 
around somewhere). Future Electronics also sold these chips at the time.

Had one hooked up to a Sinclair ZX-81, great fun.. especially when when 
it went into a loop and kept on repeating. The places that supply parts 
for arcade game repair sometimes list the SP0256.
Regards, Mike