The Texas Instruments LPC Speech Chips are a series of speech synthesizer digital signal processor integrated circuits created by Texas Instruments beginning in 1978. They continued to be developed and marketed for many years, though the speech department moved around several times within TI until finally dissolving in late 2001. The rights to the speech-specific subset of the MSP line, the last remaining line of TI speech products as of 2001, were sold to Sensory, Inc. in October 2001. [1] [2]
Speech data is stored through pitch-excited linear predictive coding (PE-LPC), where words are created by a lattice filter, selectably fed by either an excitation ROM (containing a glottal pulse waveform) or an LFSR (linear-feedback shift register) noise generator. Linear predictive coding achieves a vast reduction in data volume needed to recreate intelligible speech data.
The TMC0280/TMS5100 was the first self-contained LPC speech synthesizer IC ever made. It was designed for Texas Instruments by Larry Brantingham, Paul S. Breedlove, Richard H. Wiggins, [3] and Gene A. Frantz [4] and its silicon was laid out by Larry Brantingham. [2] The chip was designed for the 'Spelling Bee' project at TI, which later became the Speak & Spell. [2] A speech-less 'Spelling B' was released at the same time as the Speak & Spell. [5]
All TI LPC speech chips until the TSP50cxx series used PMOS architecture, and LPC-10 encoding in a special TI-specific format. [6] Chips in the TI LPC speech series were labeled as TMCxxxx or CDxxxx when used by TI's consumer product division, or labeled as TMS5xxx (later TSP5xxx) when sold to 3rd parties.
The companion devices to all versions of the speech chip were the custom 4-bit-interfaced 128Kbit (16KiB) TMS6100NL (AKA TMC0350) and 32Kbit (4KiB) TMS6125NL (a.k.a. TMC0355 a.k.a. TMS7125) read-only memories which were mask programmed with words required for a specific product. [6] ALL versions of the LPC chips until the TSP50Cxx series support them. All versions of the TMS6100 appear to only have 128Kbit/16KiB of content, regardless of rumors to the contrary.
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog chips and embedded processors, which account for more than 80% of its revenue. TI also produces TI digital light processing (DLP) technology and education technology products including calculators, microcontrollers, and multi-core processors.
The TI-89 and the TI-89 Titanium are graphing calculators developed by Texas Instruments (TI). They are differentiated from most other TI graphing calculators by their computer algebra system, which allows symbolic manipulation of algebraic expressions—equations can be solved in terms of variables, whereas the TI-83/84 series can only give a numeric result.
The Intel 4004 is a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corporation in 1971. Sold for US$60, it was the first commercially produced microprocessor, and the first in a long line of Intel CPUs.
The TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A are home computers released by Texas Instruments in 1979 and 1981, respectively. Based on Texas Instruments's own TMS9900 microprocessor originally used in minicomputers, the TI-99/4 was the first 16-bit home computer. The associated TMS9918 video display controller provides color graphics and sprite support which were only comparable with those of the Atari 400 and 800 released a month after the TI-99/4. The TI-99 series also initially competed with the Apple II and TRS-80.
4-bit computing is the use of computer architectures in which integers and other data units are 4 bits wide. 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data buses of that size. A group of four bits is also called a nibble and has 24 = 16 possible values, with a range of 0 to 15.
The Speak & Spell line is a series of electronic hand-held child computers by Texas Instruments that consisted of a TMC0280 linear predictive coding speech synthesizer, a keyboard, and a receptor slot to receive one of a collection of ROM game library modules. The first Speak & Spell was introduced at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1978, making it one of the earliest handheld electronic devices with a visual display to use interchangeable game cartridges. The company Basic Fun brought back the classic Speak & Spell in 2019 with some minor changes.
The TI-81 was the first graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments. It was designed in 1990 for use in algebra and precalculus courses. Since its release, it has been superseded by a series of newer calculators: the TI-85, TI-82, TI-83, TI-86, TI-83 Plus, TI-83 Plus Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus, TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, TI-Nspire, TI-Nspire CAS, TI-84 Plus CE, and most recently, the TI-84 Plus CE Python. Most of them share the original feature set and 96×64-pixel display that began with this calculator, with the exceptions of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition and the TI-84 Plus CE family.
The TI-68 was a scientific pocket/desktop calculator produced by Texas Instruments. It was introduced in 1989 and was modified in 1991 to produce a less expensive and possibly more durable version. The adjacent picture is the later version. It was discontinued in 1997.
The TI-30 is a scientific calculator manufactured by Texas Instruments, the first model of which was introduced in 1976. While the original TI-30 was discontinued in 1983 after several design revisions, TI maintains the TI-30 designation as a branding for its low and mid-range scientific calculators.
The Texas Instruments TI-74 Basicalc is a type of programmable calculator, which was released in 1985 to replace the Compact Computer 40.
Speak & Read is an electronic learning aid made in 1980, by Texas Instruments. Speak and Read was part of a family of learning toys i.e. "Speak & Math" and "Speak & Spell".
TMS320 is a blanket name for a series of digital signal processors (DSPs) from Texas Instruments. It was introduced on April 8, 1983, through the TMS32010 processor, which was then the fastest DSP on the market.
The HP-16C Computer Scientist is a programmable pocket calculator that was produced by Hewlett-Packard between 1982 and 1989. It was specifically designed for use by computer programmers, to assist in debugging. It is a member of the HP Voyager series of programmable calculators. It was the only programmer's calculator ever produced by HP, though many later HP calculators have incorporated most of the 16C's functions.
The Texas Instruments TMS6100 Voice Synthesis Memory (VSM) is a 1 or 4-bit serial mask factory-programmed read-only memory IC. It is a companion chip to the TMS5100, CD2802, TMS5110, (rarely) TMS5200, and (rarely) TMS5220 speech synthesizer ICs, and was mask-programmed with LPC data required for a specific product. It holds 128 Kib (16 KiB) of data, and is mask-programmed with a start address for said data on a 16 KiB boundary. It is also mask-programmable whether the /CE line needs to be high or low to activate, and also what the two 'internal' CE bits need to be set to activate, effectively making the total addressable area 18 bits. Finally, it is mask-programmable whether the bits are read out 1-bit serially or 4 at a time.
Texas Instruments TI-36 is a series of scientific calculators distributed by Texas Instruments. It currently represents the high-end model for the TI-30 product lines.
The TI-95, also called the TI-95 PROCALC, is a keystroke programmable calculator and was introduced in 1987 by Texas Instruments. It was rather large, measuring 3.7" by 8" by 1" and had a 16-character alphanumeric display for the main display, and a set of 5 3-character displays for use as menu items. It had 8kB of onboard RAM, capable of being partitioned by the user between program steps for the built-in program editor, numerically-labelled registers, and file memory. It could also be connected to PC-324 compatible printers. The calculator came with a hard carrying case which closes around it. Compatible ROM and extra RAM could be placed in the expansion slot in the upper right corner of the device, which came from the factory with a dummy protector cartridge labelled "ROM/RAM". Texas Instruments would release three compatible ROM cartridges, one containing advanced mathematics functions such as the Gamma function and Newton's method labeled Mathematics, a second containing statistics features such as the Normal and Student's t distributions and various statistical tests labeled Statistics, and a third containing functions and data on common industrial chemicals labelled as Chemical Engineering. An 8kb RAM expansion cartridge could also be placed into the cartridge slot, and RAM cartridges could be given names to allow a user to have multiple cartridges, each with its own library of custom-made functions. The calculator also supported the use of a cassette tape drive to store programs. Programs are entered into the calculator's memory as a keystroke program, in which the user effectively records a macro which is played back when the program is run.
ESS Technology Incorporated is a private manufacturer of computer multimedia products, Audio DACs and ADCs based in Fremont, California with R&D centers in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada and Beijing, China. It was founded by Forrest Mozer in 1983. Robert L. Blair is the CEO and President of the company.
The Texas Instruments Business Analyst series is a product line of financial calculators introduced in 1976. BA calculators provide time value of money functions and are widely used in accounting and other financial applications. Though originally designed specifically for financial use, current models also include basic scientific calculator and statistics functions. The BA series competes directly with other mid- to high-end financial calculators, particularly the HP-12C and other models from TI competitor Hewlett-Packard. There are two models in the product line: the BA II Plus and the BA II Plus Professional.
GI SP0256 refers to a family of closely related NMOS LSI chips manufactured by General Instrument in the early 1980s, able to model the human vocal tract by a software programmable digital filter, creating a digital output converted into an analog signal through an external low-pass filter. The SP0256 includes 2 KB of mask ROM. The various versions of SP0256 differ primarily in the voice data programmed into their mask ROMs.
The TMS1000 is a family of microcontrollers introduced by Texas Instruments in 1974.