SP0256 Allophones

• SP0256
• SP0256 Voice Generator
• SP0256 Instruction Set
• SP0256 Allophones
• SP0256 Pin-Outs

SP0256-AL2 Allophone List

 Num Name  Example Length         Num Name  Example Length
 00h PA1   PAUSE     10ms         20h /AW/  Out      370ms
 01h PA2   PAUSE     30ms         21h /DD2/ Do       160ms
 02h PA3   PAUSE     50ms         22h /GG3/ Wig      140ms
 03h PA4   PAUSE    100ms         23h /VV/  Vest     190ms
 04h PA5   PAUSE    200ms         24h /GG1/ Got       80ms
 05h /OY/  Boy      420ms         25h /SH/  Ship     160ms
 06h /AY/  Sky      260ms         26h /ZH/  Azure    190ms
 07h /EH/  End       70ms         27h /RR2/ Brain    120ms
 08h /KK3/ Comb     120ms         28h /FF/  Food     150ms
 09h /PP/  Pow      210ms         29h /KK2/ Sky      190ms
 0Ah /JH/  Dodge    140ms         2Ah /KK1/ Can't    160ms
 0Bh /NN1/ Thin     140ms         2Bh /ZZ/  Zoo      210ms
 0Ch /IH/  Sit       70ms         2Ch /NG/  Anchor   220ms
 0Dh /TT2/ To       140ms         2Dh /LL/  Lake     110ms
 0Eh /RR1/ Rural    170ms         2Eh /WW/  Wool     180ms
 0Fh /AX/  Succeed   70ms         2Fh /XR/  Repair   360ms
 10h /MM/  Milk     180ms         30h /WH/  Whig     200ms
 11h /TT1/ Part     100ms         31h /YY1/ Yes      130ms
 12h /DH1/ They     290ms         32h /CH/  Church   190ms
 13h /IY/  See      250ms         33h /ER1/ Letter   160ms
 14h /EY/  Beige    280ms         34h /ER2/ Fir      300ms
 15h /DD1/ Could     70ms         35h /OW/  Beau     240ms
 16h /UW1/ To       100ms         36h /DH2/ Bath     240ms
 17h /AO/  Aught    100ms         37h /SS/  Vest      90ms
 18h /AA/  Hot      100ms         38h /NN2/ No       190ms
 19h /YY2/ Yes      180ms         39h /HH2/ Hoe      180ms
 1Ah /AE/  Hat      120ms         3Ah /OR/  Store    330ms
 1Bh /HH1/ He       130ms         3Bh /AR/  Alarm    290ms
 1Ch /BB1/ Business  80ms         3Ch /YR/  Clear    350ms
 1Dh /TH/  Thin     180ms         3Dh /GG2/ Guest     40ms
 1Eh /UH/  Book     100ms         3Eh /EL/  Saddle   190ms
 1Fh /UW2/ Food     260ms         3Fh /BB2/ Business  50ms

• Mind that completion of an allophone doesn't mute the voice generator (it'll keep repeating the end of the allophone until receiving a new allophone). To mute the voice generator, output a short pause (eg. PA1) after your last allophone.

• The above timings are taken as-is from the SP0256-AL2 data sheet (unlike as on real hardware, these values are rounded to 10ms boundaries, and aside from that inaccuracy, some timing values may be wrong).

Other Allophone/Word Sets

For curiosity, below are some other SP0256-xx variants (none of the known CPC devices are using that variants though).

SP0256-012 Word List

This chip is used in the "Intellivoice" expansion module for Mattel's Intellivision.

 00h (SPB640      08h One         14h Thirteen    20h Seventy
     Speech       09h Two         15h Fourteen    21h Eighty
     FIFO)        0Ah Three       16h Fifteen     22h Ninety
 01h pause4       0Bh Four        17h Sixteen     23h Hundred
 02h pause3       0Ch Five        18h Seventeen   24h Thousand
 03h pause2       0Dh Six         19h Eighteen    25h -teen
 04h pause1       0Eh Seven       1Ah Nineteen    26h -ty
 05h pause0       0Fh Eight       1Bh Twenty      27h Press
 06h "Mattel      10h Nine        1Ch Thirty      28h Enter
     Electronics  11h Ten         1Dh Fourty      29h Or
     Presents"    12h Eleven      1Eh Fifty       2Ah And
 07h Zero         13h Twelve      1Fh Sixty

There isn't much known about the SPB640 FIFO, as far as I understand, it does have three functions: It can hold up to 64 word/allophone numbers (to be injected to A1..A8 pins of the SP0256), it can hold opcodes/parameters (to be injected to SER IN pin of the SP0256), and it includes a general purpose I/O port.

SP0256-017 Word List

 00h Oh           09h Nine        12h Eighteen    1Bh Hour
 01h One          0Ah Ten         13h Nineteen    1Ch Minute
 02h Two          0Bh Eleven      14h Twenty      1Dh Hundred Hour
 03h Three        0Ch Twelve      15h Thirty      1Eh Good Morning
 04h Four         0Dh Thirteen    16h Forty       1Fh Attention Please
 05h Five         0Eh Fourteen    17h Fifty       20h Please Hurry
 06h Six          0Fh Fifteen     18h It is       21h Melody A
 07h Seven        10h Sixteen     19h A.M.        22h Melody B
 08h Eight        11h Seventeen   1Ah P.M.        23h Melody C

SP0256-019 (or rather SP0256B-019) Allophone/Word/Phrase List

This chip is used in "The Voice", an expansion module for the Odyssey 2. The chip contains the following allophones and words:

 80h..BFh Allophones (same as 00h..3Fh on SP0256-AL2)    C0h "Enemy"
 C1h "All clear"     C2h "Please"     C3h "Get off"      C4h "Open fire"
 C5h "Watch out"     C6h "Mercy"      C7h "Hit it"       C8h "You blew it"
 C9h "Do it again"   CAh "Incredible" FAh "U.F.O."       FBh "Monster!"

Not sure why bit7 is set in the codes (it should be written like so to the O2 I/O ports, but maybe the bit isn't actually passed to the SP0256 chip)? Additionally, the expansion module contains 3 built-in speech ROMs with sound effects and various words/phrases like "Amazing", "Come on", "Outch", etc. Moreover, Odyssey 2 game cartridges can contain up to 5 external speech ROMs. For details see "Odyssey 2 Technical Specs" from Daniel Boris.

Downloads

• Improper SP0256-AL2 allophones as 8bit WAV files - Caution this file contains corrupted AL2 allophones (apparently recorded without issuing a PAUSE after each allophone, so the allophones have wrong length. For example, /A0/ should repeat 8 times, but in the WAV file it accidently repeats 10.5 times) (note: instead of using the physical durations, the length of the recordings seems to be based on the lengths specified in the datasheet, which are totally wrong)