Short:        Speech service for ZZ9000/XACP
Author:       Xanxi - Hakim HASSANI
Uploader:     Xanxi - hassani hakim gmail com
Type:         util/misc
Version:      1.0
Requires:     ZZ9000 with Xanxi XACP/Core1-compatible firmware, AHI
Architecture: m68k-amigaos >= 3.0
Distribution: Aminet

ZZSpeech is a speech synthesis service for AmigaOS and the MNT ZZ9000.

It uses the ZZ9000 ARM Cortex-A9 Core1 to run a resident CMU Flite speech
engine. The Amiga side provides a resident daemon, a GUI frontend, a CLI
client, and a write-only DOS handler.

ZZSpeech is also a reference implementation of the Xanxi XACP/Core1 resident
service model for the ZZ9000.

IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT

ZZSpeech requires a ZZ9000 running Xanxi XACP/Core1-compatible firmware.
Current XX19 firmware is available from 
https://github.com/Xanxi-Amiga/XACP-V1/releases/tag/XX19_firmware
ZZSpeech does not work with stock MNT firmware 1.13. Other firmware builds,
are unsupported unless they explicitly implement
the same Core1 blob-launch ABI.


The Flite engine is loaded at runtime as
an external Core1 blob.

COMPONENTS

* ZZSpeechDaemon
  Resident service. Owns Core1, the loaded Flite voice, and AHI.

* ZZSpeechGUI
  Simple AmigaOS graphical frontend for entering text and sending it to the
  daemon.

* ZZSay
  CLI client for sending text or files to the daemon.

* ZZSPEECH:
  Write-only DOS handler. Allows Shell redirection and copy-to-speech usage.

* zspeech_core1.bin
  ARM Core1 Flite blob loaded at runtime.

* slt.flitevox
  Default CMU Flite voice.

BASIC USAGE

Start the daemon first:

Execute S:ZZSpeech-Start

or from the ZZSpeech directory:

ZZSpeechDaemon

Then use the GUI, the CLI client, or the DOS handler.

CLI examples:

ZZSay "Hello from ZZ9000"
ZZSay FILE RAM:text.txt
ZZSay STATUS
ZZSay QUIT

DOS handler examples, if ZZSPEECH: is mounted:

echo "Hello from ZZ9000" >ZZSPEECH:
copy RAM:text.txt TO ZZSPEECH:

INSTALLATION SUMMARY

Recommended layout:

SYS:ZZSpeech/
ZZSpeechDaemon
ZZSpeechGUI
ZZSay
zspeech_core1.bin
slt.flitevox
docs/
src/

The DOS handler must be installed in:

L:ZZSpeech-Handler

The startup script must be installed in:

S:ZZSpeech-Start

The ZZSPEECH mount file should normally be installed in:

SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers/ZZSPEECH

The recommended setup does not auto-mount ZZSPEECH: at boot. Start ZZSpeech
with:

Execute S:ZZSpeech-Start

The startup script starts the daemon and mounts ZZSPEECH:.

Advanced users may copy the ZZSPEECH mount file to DEVS:DOSDrivers/ if they
want it mounted automatically at boot. This is not recommended unless the
daemon is also started automatically and the required XACP/Core1 firmware is
always present.

LIMITATIONS

Only one Core1 blob can run at a time. While ZZSpeechDaemon is active, it owns
Core1. Before launching another Core1-based project such as ZZDoom,
ZZPicoDrive, Julia, or another ARM blob, stop the daemon with:

ZZSay QUIT

The default Flite voice is intelligible but synthetic. This is not neural TTS.
Other free voices can be downloaded from 
http://festvox.org/flite/packed/flite-2.1/voices/ ; 
ZZSpeech currently supports only .flitevox voice files smaller than 16 MB, 
because the voice staging area is limited to 16 MB.


SOURCES

Source code is not included in this archive. It will be published separately
on GitHub.

NOTES

This project is part of the XACP experiments: using the ZZ9000 as a real ARM
coprocessor for classic Amiga systems.

Speech synthesis is based on CMU Flite and CMU/FestVox voice data. See the
included license files for redistribution terms.