I like how you two think, reducing the required transistor count from tens of billions (mostly DRAM bits) to 26 to zero.

(For the daytime question, personally I'd use a photocell to measure sunlight, one transistor to amplify the signal, another to switch based on a threshold, and a third as an oscillator driving a 3-pin piezzo buzzer at its natural frequency. No more semiconductors required. Nowadays, an LCD digital alarm clock from a dollar store is a potentially cheaper, silently running solution. It also shows time with an update every second that does not send 120k tokens back and forth, and uses so little energy that its single AAA alkaline battery will expire and corrode before fuly discharging.)