Votrax

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Votrax Inc. ((properly Votrax International, Inc.)), originally known as the Vocal division of Federal Screw Works or just Votrax, was a speech synthesis company located in the Detroit, MI area from 1971 to about 1996 (source?). It began as a division of Federal Screw Works from 1971 to 1973?. In 1974, it was given the Votrax name and moved to Troy, MI and in 1980 split off of its parent company entirely and became 'Votrax International, Inc.', which it remained until about 1992, when it was renamed yet again to Vysion, Inc. (NOT the same Vysion Inc. which makes security cameras), which it remained until its dissolution in around 1996.[1]

[edit] Company Origins

All the Votrax speech synthesizers owe their existence to the speech synthesizer design created in 1970 by Richard T. Gagnon. After coming up with a viable design scheme in his basement laboratory, R.T. Gagnon licensed it to Federal Screw Works, the company he was working for at the time, and they continued development of his original design. This became the "Vocal division" of Federal Screw Works.[1]

[edit] Main Products

Votrax is responsible for designing and manufacturing several important early speech synthesizer back-ends, and several widely used integrated circuit phoneme synthesizers. Votrax produced speech backend modules and cards for various personal computers, and worked with the NRL to create an extensible speech frontend system. Votrax's speech technology was also used by 3rd parties in several arcade games, pinball machines, and talking terminals.[2]

During the 1970s, Votrax produced a series of discrete speech synthesizers, with epoxy-coated boards to thwart people copying their designs. In 1980, they designed and manufactured an integrated circuit speech synthesizer called the SC-01. This IC proved very popular in the third party market, and was produced until at least 1984. It was succeeded by the somewhat more dynamic SC-02, also known as the SSI-263P. From the beginning of SC-02 production, Silicon Systems Inc. (now part of Texas Instruments)[2] manufactured the SC-02 chip under the product number SSI-263P, and this was apparently later adopted as the official name of the IC.

[edit] Other Products

Since early in its life, Votrax specialized in making phoneme-based speech synthesizers and text-to-speech algorithms. The popular Naval Research Laboratory, or "NRL" text-to-phoneme algorithm was developed by a collaboration between Votrax and the NRL in 1973. This algorithm and variants of it were used on a number of text-to-speech devices, such as the votrax type-n-talk, the votrax personal speech system, and the General Instruments CTS256A-AL2 text-to-allophone chip. [1] A good rundown of the NRL algorithm can be found under reference [3].

Votrax also supplied the SC-02 speech chip used in the amateur radio 'DOVE-OSCAR 17' or 'DOVE' Microsattelite. [4] [5] [6]

Official Products, by year (from SSSHP[1], unless listed otherwise)

1971:

  • VS1 (prototype only, Gagnon's personal model)
  • VS2 (prototype only)
  • VS3 (prototype only)

1972:

  • VS4 (first model sold by Votrax)
  • VS5
  • VS6 (design prototypes only)

1973:

  • VS6

1973-1975: (exact years unclear)

  • VS6.1
  • VS6.2
  • VS6.3
  • VS6.G

1975:

  • VS6.G2

1977?:

  • VS6.4

1978

  • ML-1
  • ML-1ES
  • ML-2ES

1978-1980: (exact years unclear)

  • VSA
  • SVA (first self-contained speech synthesizer, with a 6800 core running the NRL frontend)[7]
  • VSC
  • VSK

1980:

  • CDS1 (emulation of SC-01 running on a ?DEC? mainframe)
  • VSB
  • SC-01 (IC)
  • VSM/1 (SC-01 based)
  • Votrax 'circuit cards?' (SC-01 based)
  • Speech PAC (SC-01 based) (also mentioned at [8])
  • Type n' Talk (SC-01 based earlier model)

1981:

  • SC-01-A (IC, bugfix of SC-01, made sometime after the 8th week of 1981)
  • Type n' Talk (SC-01-A based later model)

1982:

  • Personal Speech System (SC-01-A based)

1983:

  • SC-02/SSI-263P (IC)

1984:

1985:

  • SSI-263AP (bugfix of SSI-263P, fixed the reset pin)[10]
3rd party products which used Votrax technology, modules or chips

unknown, could be 1979-1986:

  • Enabling Technologies 'Audibraille' (Simple Microcomputer with 128k mem plus 64k? disk drives? [typo of 640k?]) (SVA speech core)[11][12]

1980:

  • Tandy/Radio Shack 'TRS-80 Speech Module' (Stripped-down VSK?) (source: byte article)
  • Maryland Computer Services 'Total Talk' (Modified HP-2621 Terminal) (VSB + McIlroy algorithm) [13]
  • Automated Functions 'VERT' (?custom? Terminal) (VSB + McIlroy algorithm)[13]
  • Triformatlon System 'FSST-3' (Modified Zenith Z-19 Terminal) (VSA + NRL algorithm)[13]
  • IBM 'Audio Typing unit' (VSB, ? algorithm)[13]
  • Gottlieb Pinball Machines (SC-01)
  • Midway Wizard Of Wor Arcade machine (SC-01, later machines may have had SC-01-A)
  • Phonic Mirror 'Handy Voice' (SC-01)[14]

1981:

1982:

1983?:

1983:

1984-96:

  • Artic technologies (several cards using SC-01-A and SC-02 and SSI-263AP, rebadged as "artic 263")[18]

2005:

  • GSE-Reactive 'Mockingboard v1' (based on the Sweet Micro Systems Mockingboard C) (SC-02/SSI-263P)
References
  1. ^ a b c d http://www.mindspring.com/~ssshp/ssshp_cd/ss_votr.htm
  2. ^ a b http://www.redcedar.com/sc01.htm
  3. ^ a b http://members.tripod.com/werdav/t2smicrv.html
  4. ^ http://201.91.65.226/dove/dove.html
  5. ^ http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/nk6k/msatname.html
  6. ^ http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/n7hpr/do17.html
  7. ^ http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=806486
  8. ^ http://members.tripod.com/werdav/minspeak.html
  9. ^ a b c http://www.abledata.com/abledata.cfm?pageid=113582&orgid=109489&discontinuetoggle=1
  10. ^ http://groups.google.com/group/net.micro/browse_thread/thread/51a58ac399404c31/7a4865406f88738a?lnk=st&q=speech+263++reset&rnum=6&hl=en#7a4865406f88738a
  11. ^ http://canada.esat.kuleuven.ac.be/docarch/infovisie/iv/1988/jg2nr2/sep17.doc
  12. ^ http://www.abledata.com/abledata.cfm?pageid=113583&top=13147&productid=96471&trail=22,13134
  13. ^ a b c d http://www.edstoffel.com/david/talkingterminals.html
  14. ^ http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/davies/ictadvsp.html
  15. ^ a b http://members.aol.com/JPMLee/dthiel.htm
  16. ^ http://ripsaw.cac.psu.edu/%7Emloewen/Oldtech/Tandy/
  17. ^ http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/davies/ictpcma.html
  18. ^ http://www.artictech.com/history.htm
Other Points of Interest
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