On Thu, February 2, 2012 9:39 pm, Mark Hanchey wrote: > Anyone know why microchip didn't continue to support text to speech as I > don't really see any of their current products supporting that area. I > just found it interesting that all the time growing up I was using a pic > chip and never knew it . I would really love it if microchip produced a > newer version of the chip, I could see lots of potential for such a > chip. That or just a general sound chip like the AY-3 series yamaha did > would be useful for function generators and sound effects. I suspect that Microchip stopped making these chips because there was little demand and no money to be made. Microchip's CEO wrote a book on turning around Microchip in the late 80's, early 90's: . There was a lot of cutting of unprofitable products in that era. Since then, Microchip has been a conservatively run company that is consistently profitable and one of the minority of tech companies that pays a dividend on their stock. I also suspect that now, if you wanted to devote the time to it, most of these functions could be handled by a general purpose PIC. Microchip still makes (and sells) 20 year old microcontroller designs (PIC16C54, for example). Matt Bennett Just outside of Austin, TX 30.51,-97.91 The views I express are my own, not that of my employer, a large multinational corporation that you are familiar with. --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .