🚀 go-pugleaf

Every book I read on speech synthesis claims the SPO256-AL2 is the
chip to use for phoneme-based synthesis.  The manufacturer is Microchip
according to _Designing with Speech Processing Chips_, by Ricardo Jimenez, 1991
1991.  Note the 1991 copyright!  Microchip says they don't make the
chip anymore.

Does anyone know a supplier of any phoneme-based chip?

Any other suggestions?  Here's some backround on my application:

I'm using a Z8681 micro.  This will be interfaced to a PC through an
I/O port.  Therefore, I could use the PC's disk and transfer data through
the 8681 to the synthesiser at no extra circuit cost.

Another twist.  The 8681 and speech IC must work in a stand alone mode
to output 2 short msgs.    If you guessed that this will be a watchdog
timer for my PC your right.

Speech quality does not have to be that good, but defineately understandable.
Unlimited vocabulary would be really great, but at the very least I need
to be able to program my own vocabulary at a low cost.   This is the main
reason I feel that the phoneme-based chip is the way to go.

Above, low chip count, low cost and simplicity is my goal, but if I can
hack out some solution with the micro which would simplify the hardware,
I'm more than willing.

Thanks in advance.