Date   : Fri, 30 Apr 1999 09:54:23 +0100 (BST)
From   : "Andrew Benham" <adsb@...>
Subject: Re: PLEASE HELP URGENTLY

On Fri, 30 Apr 1999, John Simpson wrote:

> > I'm not too sure about the speech chip.  Is this the Acorn one?  If so,
> > I thought this was usually plugged in to the socket on the right hand
> > side of BBC model A and B keyboards (the socket would be covered by a
> > layer of plastic if it had never been used).  This socket doesn't exist
> > on BBC Masters.  I don't know if this chip could be plugged in
> > internally, or how it would be marked to differentiate it from other ROM
> > chips, but I would expect the *HELP command to list it if present.
> 
> I've never seen a speech chip (they weren't very popular) but I do recall
> that whole spoken words were stored on something called a PHROM (PHrase
> ROM). It would be necessary to have at least one of these, and they would be
> found in the slots next to where you have already found the DFS ROM. 
> 
> There has to be some other sort of hardware to read these ROMS - this would
> be the speech chip itself I presume. I have no idea where this would fit.

The Acorn speech system comprised two ICs. There was a Texas Instruments
speech chip (I've forgotten the number now), and the 'Kenneth Kendal' speech
ROM.

The ROMs plugged into the main board in dedicated sockets. There was then
a socket which could be soldered onto the right hand side of the keyboard to
take cartridges. The plastic sheet over the keyboard had a break-out section
to gain access to this socket.

The socket on the keyboard wasn't the same as the Electron/Master cartridge
socket, and I'm not aware that anyone ever made use of it.

The speech chip could, in theory, read additional speech ROMs in this
cartridge socket. I don't think it could read speech ROMs in the traditional
ROM sockets, although I believe the ROM filing system might have been able
to read from ROMs in the cartridge socket on the keyboard.

When the Master was introduced, the addresses on the slow bus which had
been used by the speech system were reallocated to the real-time clock
chip. 

Acorn's support for the speech system was minimal, although it worked
rather well. When I sold my model B, the speech system went with it because
it was no use with my Master.

--
Andrew Benham   adsb@...               
Nortel Networks, London Road, Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1279 402372    Fax: +44 1279 405746

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