The MEA8000 is a Speech Synthesizer chip. It contains a Voice Generator similar to that used in the [[SP0256]] speech chip. However, unlike the SP0256, it doesn't contain a built-in microprocessor, nor built-in ROM.
To output an allophone, one must send one (or usually more) 32bit packet(s) to the chip. This is making it more complicated to use than the SP0256 (which needs only one 8bit value per allophone). On the other hand, it's making the MEA8000 more flexible: The SP0256 contains predefined allophones (usually the -AL2 english allophone set), whilst the MEA8000 can be freely used with different allophone sets (english, french, other languages) , different intonations (eg. raise the pitch to pronounce questions), or even as general purpose sound processor, (ie. to produce music or explosions, etc.sound effects). == Technical ==
== CPC Speech Synthesisers ==