---
title: "Products in Review"
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published_at: "2026-01-13T13:58:34+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-06-21T23:26:56+00:00"
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excerpt: "This column will provide reviews of hardware 'add-ons' software, and books that are available for the Sinclair computers. Again, we will do reviews as our budget allows, or as they are loaned/donated by vendors for review. Reviews done by our subscribers will also be welcomed. The first review i s about a Parrot. Not the…"
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pubdate: "April 1983"
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    title: "The Parrot"
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    title: "Research in Speech Technology (R.I.S.T.) Inc."
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---

# Products in Review

This column will provide reviews of hardware ‘add-ons’ software, and books that are available for the Sinclair computers. Again, we will do reviews as our budget allows, or as they are loaned/donated by vendors for review. Reviews done by our subscribers will also be welcomed.

The first review i s about a [Parrot](http://localhost/product/the-parrot/). Not the bird version but a “black box’ that allows the ZX/TS to sound like a parrot. The ad for this device appeared in last month’s issue (and this month’s too) and we were able to borrow one for a month to evaluate it. Being an avid speech synthesis student & instructor I couldn’t turn down the chance to try it. The Parrot, offered by [RIST, Inc](http://localhost/company/research-in-speech-technology-r-i-s-t-inc/). is a permanently sealed module that interfaces to the ZX80/ZX81/TS1000. It requires an external speaker, has a volume control, reset switch, and a jack for providing an optional external power supply in the event your computer supply is already taxed. My ZX81 supply, to which I have added 4700uE additional capacitance, remained at 9vdc (with lv pk-pk ripple) with the Parrot and my Byte Back 64K memory attached.

Inside the Parrot is the General Instruments SPØ256 speech synthesizer IC. A few details on this chip were given in a Radio- Electronics mag (Mar 83) review of the Voicetech Industries (now RIST) speech synthesizer semi-kit. If you are interested in interfacing to an Apple or TRS80 O ‘doing it yourself’, you should contact them for info on their economical semi-kits. This chip uses one of the two most popular techniques of producing speech, that of phoneme/allophone creation. I could write pages, throwing fricatives, silibants, and even a few vowels at you to explain what I know about this, and I’m no expert by any means. If you have more than a casual interest feel free to contact me and I will gladly share my findings.