The Exidy Sorcerer™ ____

PAGE 109 S[]~[lE~E"'ir~ VOLUME 4 C NUMBER 6 FlJJIJ~Er1TI[JE Sep. 15, 1982 INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER USERS NEWSLETTER Copyright (C) 1982 by Sorcer-er~s Apprentice - All rights reserved $3.00 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IN THIS ISSUE - t Random IiO ••••••••••••••••• 109 C-80 Review .••..•......•••• 122 Speech Synthesis •••.••..... 110 STS Review .•••.••.•••••••.• 123 Northstar to Vista Conv •.•. 114 Classified Ads •.•.•..•.•.•• 125 1 *EXTMOFF .•.•.•••••••••••••• 117 TRS-80 Update •.•••.••.••••• 132 More 56k Modification ....•• 118 1983 Renewal Form ••••••••.• 134 In the P~bli~ Domain .••..•• 120 *MEMOFF. • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 135 . ----------------:,--:--------------------------------------------------------- Random I/O By Don Gottwald As all of you already know Many of you have responded Ralph LaFlamme has gone on to verv positively to my last ar more important matters and will ticle. We will continue to pro not be able to continue as vide the newsletter as long as Editor. Yours truly has been the interest is there. elected again to fi I the void until we can arrange for someone Challenge Systems Co. of <::: else to take over. I have al Richardson Texas. indicated that .. ready relinquished many of my three companies· are .currently duties to other people - you~l negotiating for the manu no doubt hear from them 1n the facturing rights to the Sor near future. cerer. A company in India, and a • company in Peru will probably be -. The reason for the dot matrix manufacturing the Sorcerer in printing ~s, Ralph~s computer is the near future. The third nego down aga1n and he was therefore tiations are with the designer unable to print this issue. If of the Sorcerer II for the his computer is repaired in time rights in North America. All .the for the ne}~t issue - we ~..,ill people involved appeared to be again have the nice print. I~ve very confident that an agreement decided to run this issue in can be reached very soon. I will full print~ without reduction to keep you posted. assure better readability. The Jerry Rude t 13730 W. Park Dr •• next issue will again be a Magalia, CA 95054 wants to double issue. so we can get contact people who are in caught up and· stay that way for terested in software dealing ne}~t year. with Electrical Engineering, as well as Civil and Mechanical I would like to thank Mike Engineering. He~s also Patterson of California for interested in finding a supplier keying in some of the articles of TTY parts in the Northern in th1s issue, despite the fact California area. that he was moving at the time. I Thanks are also in order for all Jerry Chapin of 74 Garfield the people who have contributed Ave •• Colonia, NJ 07067 repre articles in the last few weeks. sents a growing group of Sor Please don~t be upset if your cerer owners living in Northern article did not make this issue New Jersey all' with a 48k - it~ll probably be in the next Sorcerer. they would like to one. We still need more articles establish contact with other so we can have enough available Sorcerer users and programmers for editing, which will enable to exchange information and to us to be on time with each try to overcome the software issue. shortage for the Sorcerer. A SPEECH SVNTHESIZER FOR THE EXIDV SORCERER Using the Votrax SC-01 by Dave Trzcinski 15516 Centralia Redford, Mich. 48239 c' (313-534 2993) Soon after obtaining a used bus. When the SC-01 receives a Sorcerer and becoming familiar strobe pulse, the data byte is with it~s operation, I decided locked lnto it~s data register it was time to begin working on and the A/R line flips low. a peripheral device. First I This condition is maintained wanted to build something that I until the phoneme output has could use later to improve my been completed. It then returns machine language programming high t ready for the next code. skills. Second it had to be Hope~ully I could figure out how reasonably simple to interface, to match these requirements with since thlS was my first try. the lines available from the Finally I wanted lt work with output port. the parallel output port. A local electronics parts supplier To my delight, the chip had a had a listing in his catalog for built in RC clock meaning I a single chip speech synthe didn~t need a special xtal. The sizer. At the tlme I nadn~t simplest setup used a resistor heard of the Votrax SC-Ol but I and capacitor for timing. The did know Votrax was involved in audio output arrangement of 3 early research of electronic lines looked strange at first~ speech synthesis. The idea of but one figure in the data shee~ interfacing a speech synthesizer diagrammed simple connections to with the Sorcerer seemed like an audio amplifier chip. Only such an interesting project that one obvious problem remained. A I drove over to the supplier and single supply voltage was got all the data he had on the required, but the minimum was 9 SC-01. volts instead of the 5 volts available from the output port. The Votrax SC-01 synthesizer Well for now I guess I could is a single 22 pin CMOS chip steal power from the 12 volt that synthesizes the sounds of serial port (and it was going so human speech by producing sounds smoothly) • called "phonemes" (said fo neems). Phonemes are the funda After 3 evenings wire wrapping mental sounds that we use in and unwrapping, adding and sub producing speech. The SC-Ol tracting 10glC chips, the cir contains the coding required to cuit shown in fig. (3 t ~g. 113) produce 64 of these sounds. Also resulted. Data -is ~ed to the on the list are codes for 2 no SC-Ol through a DP8304 bus sound wait words, and 1 stop driver. The driverdoesn~t word. effect the data, but provides insurance in case something From the block diagram (see happens to the cable connecting fig. 1, pg.113 ), it looked like the computer and the interfacing the SC-Ol with my synthesizer. The audio output Sorcerer would be easy. First feeds an LM386 through a 20 K the device will accept the level control pot. With an 8 phoneme coding from 6 of the 8 ohm speaker, the volume produced available output port data is loud enough to be heard lines. The 2 remaining high several rooms away. One shots bits can be used for optional (#1) and (#2) take the down voiced inflection. As expected going true signal (not data there were a set of lines for available) from the Sorcerer and data handshake. One of these convert it to the up going lines was used to strobe the (strobe) input required. One data into a holding register, shot (#1) is required to provide the second was used to return the delay needed to allow the the handshake (to the computer) phoneme data to reach the for busy or next phoneme register in the SC-Ol before it conditions. is held by the strobe pulse from one shot (#2). When the phoneme Figure (2, pg. 113) shows the has been completely sounded the data strobe and Request line then goes high. acknowledge/request handshake This fires one shot (#3) WhlCh , C," sequence. When the A/R line is produces the down going true high data may be placed on the Dulse to reset the data avail- cont'd on page 112 Sorcerer's Apprentice Page 110 ._----FOR THE EXIDY SORCERER™ ____-.. ...... :::····· .: I.:.',',-:-:. • • • • • • A Dogfight in Space .. a real-time graphics game for two players c • written in machine language for the Exidy Sorcerer™ • graphics characters continually redrawn for smooth, high-resolution movement • each ship realistically accelerates, rotates, and fires • 16K required • $20.00 for cassette (includes shipping) III VISA I We think you'll like it! P.O. B 0)( 1 91 0 0 E U G ENE, 0 REG 0 N 97440 o. (503) 689 - 7 4 0 9 Sorcerer~s Apprentice Page 111 able flip flop in the Sorcerer. 140 DATA 6,33,41,42,16,62 The software monitors this 150 DATA 21,0~9~41,62 change and begins sending the 160 DATA 30,2b,U~6,33,41,62 next phoneme code. Bypass 170 DATA 25~0.6,..)3,41,62 capacitors are provided to help 180 DATA 2,0,35,24.62 keep each power voltage clean. ;[90 DATA 2.1.12.62" The 39 k resistor from the SC-01 200 DATA 2~/~13i62 A/R line to ground, provides a 210 DATA 5_,~3,-,5,62 pull down for the one shot. I 220 DATA 37,60,41,62 tried a voltage divider and a 230 DATA 62.62 series drop resistor arrangement 240 DATA 25~34,54,55,55,62 here (since I am driving 5 volt 250 DATA logic with 12 volts), but this 260 DATA ~li4ji5~262 . worked the best. 270 DATA 42,60,33,41,62 280 DATA 34,54,55,55,62 I built my synthesizer on a 290 DATA 15,60,33,41,62 small piece of perf. board.to 300 DATA 30,50,14,35,24,34, which I epoxied a 30 pin connec 54,55 62 tor edge from a scrap PC board. 310 DATA 2.1.1,,25~3L31162 I try to standardize on connec 320 DATA 4~,,,-1,Ui"f~4 ,62 tor pin assignments, because 330 DATA 18,60,4 ,b2 after I get an S-100 DOX built, 340 DATA 62,62,62,62,62,62 I~ll just plug the board in.

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