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331:, and they created another chip using Mozer synthesis, the MM54101 "Digitalker". At first, even then, all words were encoded by hand by Mozer in his basement, but in the third or fourth year of the license, National came up with a software encoder for it. After the exclusive license expired (National seemed to have a "non-exclusive" license for a year or so), Mozer licensed the technology to ESS. After Mozer's son Todd split off and created
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Forrest Mozer continues his research work at the
University of California, these days as Associate Director of Space Sciences. He was awarded EGU Hannes Alfven Medallist 2004 for his work in electrical field measurement and space plasma and also was involved in building the microphone to record
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as well as the V40 ThinQ. The ESS9038Pro is their flagship and competes against
Japanese AKM (Asahi Kasei Microdevices) AK4499EXEQ and American Cirrus Logic CS43131 for a share of the market. ESS and AKM dominate the desktop audiophile devices including external DACs and integrated all in one
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The company was created at least partially as a way to market Mozer's speech synthesis system (described in US patents 4,214,125, 4,433,434 and 4,435,831) after his (3-year, summer 1978 to summer 1981, extended) contract with
National Semiconductor expired in 1983 or so.
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In 2001 ESS acquired a small
Kelowna design company (SAS) run by Martin Mallinson and continues R&D operations in Kelowna. The Kelowna R&D Center developed the Sabre range of DAC and ADC products that are used in many audio systems and cell phones.
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Professor Mozer first became interested in speech technology when a blind student in his class in 1970 asked whether he could help design a talking calculator. Mozer spent 5 years working on it, and his speech technology first appeared in the
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MX (this compression is nearly identical to that used on the
Digitalker, with some minor coding changes and possibly some RLE. It's apparently used on some alarm systems and on the Vtech talking baseball/football
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synthesis featured in later ISA Sound
Blaster compatibles, offered sub-par FM sound quality. Some PCI-interface Audiodrives (namely the ES1938 Solo-1) also provided legacy DOS compatibility through Distributed
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298:"Speech+" talking calculator, in a chip called the "CRC Chip", more commonly known as s14001a, the first self-contained speech synthesizer chip. This chip was also used in a few arcade games, notably
184:. Within the hardware limitations of that time, ESS used Mozer's technology, in software, to produce realistic-sounding voices that often became the boilerplate for the respective games. Two popular
162:, the former manager of National Semiconductors Digitalker line of talking chips. Costello left soon after the formation and started Cadence Designs with his former boss from National.
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Historically, ESS Technology was most famous for their line of their
Audiodrive chips for audio cards. Now they are known for their line of Sabre DAC and ADC products.
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DAC/Amp devices. Meanwhile Cirrus Logic dominates the portable device market, Apple Inc is its number one customer accounting for approximately 83% of its chip sales.
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Professor Mozer's technique not only produced very realistic sounding speech, it also required very little on-chip (later, in software)
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ES9218P SABRE high fidelity system-on-chip; 32-bit stereo mobile digital-to-analog converter with 2 Volt headphone amplifier.
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After a three-year exclusive deal with
Telesensory Systems from 1975 to 1978, Forrest Mozer sold a 3-year license to
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compatible. Many
Audiodrive chips also featured in-house developed, OPL3-compatible FM synthesizers (branded
285:, an internet offshoot of ESS, until his stepping down on July 18, 2007, to pursue philanthropic interests.
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Electronic Speech
Systems produced synthetic speech for, among other things, home computer systems like the
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According to the Sensory Inc. history pages and old datasheets, they offered three types of compression:
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chip, which was an important feature for the time as some competing solutions, including Creative's own
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of speech about a hundredfold, so one second of speech would require 90 to 625 bytes. With ESS-speech,
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In the mid-1990s, ESS started working on making PC audio, and later, video chips, and created the
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A 1985 article from Commodore User about speech in computer games, with some 2006 additions
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360:' speech products, their main focus has been on speech recognition, and not synthesis.
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sounds from the Mars Lander. He is a member of the board of directors of Sensory, Inc.
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line, used in hundreds of different products. Audiodrive chips were at least nominally
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and Elvin Atombender's "Another visitor. Stay a while—stay forever!" in the original
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Former synthetic speech synthesizer company that is now known for its Sabre DAC chips
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ESS Technologies was founded in 1983 as Electronic Speech Systems, by Professor
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HE 1 electrostatic headphone utilizes 8 internal DACs of the SABRE ES9018.
643:"Electronically Speaking: Computer Speech Generation" by John P. Cater --
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smartphone, with a quad DAC configuration present in the V10's successor
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in 1983. Robert L. Blair is the CEO and President of the company.
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Fred Chan held a number of positions at ESS, and was CEO of
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using similar spectra of ADPCM-encoded waves) reduced the
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Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
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753:Mediaplayer with most game speech samples from ESS
379:that would normally require almost all of the 64
188:from the Commodore 64 were "He slimed me!!" from
80:DACs and ADCs for audio applications, multimedia
546:Most recently, ESS SABRE DACs are used in the
324:, and in several of Stern's pinball machines.
8:
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720:https://hifigo.com/blogs/guide/cirrus-logic
383:memory of the Commodore 64 (if encoded in
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803:Computer companies of the United States
788:Companies based in Berkeley, California
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353:and a few other PCM/LPC based systems.
793:Companies based in Fremont, California
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684:: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
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203:At some point, the company moved from
70:Dr. Saied Tehrani: President & CEO
758:Speech Box - Commodore Zone about ESS
335:, the technology was licensed there.
289:Professor Mozer's Patented Technology
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703:"SABRE ES9218P Specifications Page"
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169:designer and software engineer, in
72:John Marsh: Chief Financial Officer
152:University of California, Berkeley
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763:Commodore Zone about Sensory Inc.
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397:Fisher Price Jungle Book Reading
356:Although Sensory bought up the
732:"Sennheiser HE 1 Product Page"
1:
783:Companies established in 1984
527:Sound chip ES1869F AudioDrive
131:, China. It was founded by
808:Computer hardware companies
620:"VOS Systems Inc. -- Media"
158:, Forrest Mozer's son, and
150:, a space physicist at the
97:ESS Technology Incorporated
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391:Games featuring ESS-speech
369:psychoacoustic compression
462:Big Bird's Hide and Speak
103:manufacturer of computer
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119:with R&D centers in
469:Mickey's Jigsaw Puzzles
419:Cave of the Word Wizard
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329:National Semiconductor
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333:Sensory Circuits Inc.
171:Berkeley, California
20:ESS Technology, Inc.
296:Telesensory Systems
209:Fremont, California
117:Fremont, California
21:
576:Covox Speech Thing
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521:
495:. You can help by
404:Impossible Mission
228:speech recognition
197:Impossible Mission
600:www.bloomberg.com
533:ES1868 AudioDrive
519:Sound chip ES1938
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449:221b Baker Street
358:Texas Instruments
310:Stern Electronics
246:ESFM Synthesizers
242:Sound Blaster Pro
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431:Kennedy Approach
399:(Apple II, 19??)
373:memory footprint
214:Later, in 1994,
125:British Columbia
107:products, Audio
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667:on 2008-06-27
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491:This section
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443:Beach Head II
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224:Sensory, Inc.
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216:Forrest Mozer
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148:Forrest Mozer
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133:Forrest Mozer
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127:, Canada and
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669:. Retrieved
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627:. Retrieved
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603:. Retrieved
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504:January 2023
501:
497:adding to it
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412:Ghostbusters
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267:
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230:technology.
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191:Ghostbusters
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182:Commodore 64
179:
175:
160:Joe Costello
145:
137:
96:
95:
52:Headquarters
34:Company type
562:The luxury
542:Present day
471:(DOS, 1991)
465:(NES, 1990)
457:(C64, 1986)
455:Solo Flight
451:(C64, 1986)
445:(C64, 1985)
439:(C64, 1985)
433:(C64, 1985)
427:(C64, 1985)
421:(C64, 1984)
415:(C64, 1984)
407:(C64, 1984)
265:interface.
250:Yamaha OPL3
186:sound bites
777:Categories
671:2008-09-21
605:2020-07-07
582:References
564:Sennheiser
437:Desert Fox
235:Audiodrive
226:to market
220:Todd Mozer
156:Todd Mozer
105:multimedia
66:Key people
58:California
56:San Jose,
629:4 January
305:Wolf Pack
164:Fred Chan
115:based in
680:cite web
570:See also
476:Products
381:kilobyte
273:Founders
261:and the
239:Creative
205:Berkeley
77:Products
377:samples
315:Berzerk
263:SB-Link
218:'s son
142:History
129:Beijing
121:Kelowna
101:private
85:Website
44:Founded
38:Private
647:
552:LG V20
548:LG V10
343:cards)
321:Frenzy
308:, and
283:Vialta
300:Atari
99:is a
686:link
645:ISBN
631:2019
318:and
167:VLSI
154:and
113:ADCs
111:and
109:DACs
47:1984
556:V30
499:.
385:PCM
365:RAM
302:'s
259:DMA
254:CQM
207:to
779::
734:.
705:.
694:^
682:}}
678:{{
622:.
598:.
349:SX
346:CX
312:'
200:.
123:,
738:.
709:.
688:)
674:.
633:.
608:.
506:)
502:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
