Electronic Speech Systems
Encyclopedia
ESS Technology Incorporated ) is a listed
manufacturer of computer multimedia
products based in Fremont, California
. It was founded by Fred Chan and Forrest Mozer in 1984. The firm employs more than 500 people worldwide. Robert L. Blair is the CEO and President of the company.
Historically, ESS Technology was most famous for their line of their Audiodrive chips for audio cards. Now they are known for their line of portable multimedia players.
and Fred Chan, a VLSI designer and software engineer, in Berkeley, California
.
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.
Electronic Speech Systems produced synthetic speech for, among other things, home computer systems like the Commodore 64. 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 sound bytes from the Commodore 64 were "He slimed me!!" from Ghostbusters and Elvin Atombender's "Another visitor - Stay a while, stay forever!" in the original Impossible Mission.
At some point, the company moved from Berkeley
to Fremont, California
. Around this time, the company was renamed to ESS Technology.
Later, in 1994, Forrest Mozer's son Todd Mozer, an ESS employee, branched off and started his own company called Sensory Circuits Inc, later Sensory Inc. to market this same speech software and other speech technology.
In the mid 1990s, ESS started working on making pc audio, and later, video chips, and created the popular Audiodrive line, used in hundreds of different products.
ESS is unrelated to the Ensoniq Sound System, another popular sound card often abbreviated as 'ESS'.
Fred Chan held a number of positions at ESS, and was CEO of Vialta, an internet offshoot of ESS, until his stepping down on July 18, 2007, to pursue philanthropic interests.
ESS Techonology Inc. exists to this day, located in Fremont, California.
ESS1868 AudioDrive
"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 Atari
's Wolf Pack, and Stern Electronics' Berzerk and Frenzy
, and in several of Stern's pinball machines.
After a three-year exclusive deal with Telesensory Systems from 1975 to 1978, Forrest Mozer sold a 3 year license to National Semiconductor
, 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 Sensory Circuits Inc., the technology was licensed there.
According to the Sensory Inc. history pages and old datasheets, they offered three types of compression:
and a few other PCM/LPC based systems.
Later, Sensory bought up the remains of many old speech synthesis manufacturers from the 1980s, such as Texas Instruments
' speech division.
Professor Mozer's technique not only produced very realistic sounding speech, it also required very little on-chip (later, in software) RAM
, a sparse and expensive commodity at that time. The advanced compression algorhithm (patented, an early form of psychoacoustic compression
using similar spectra of ADPCM-encoded waves) reduced the memory footprint of speech about a hundredfold, so one second of speech would require 90 to 625 bytes. With ESS-speech, samples
that would normally require almost all of the 64 kilobyte
memory of the Commodore 64 (if encoded in PCM) were so small, that the entire game fit into the RAM along with speech, without requiring additional loads from disk.
Public company
This is not the same as a Government-owned corporation.A public company or publicly traded company is a limited liability company that offers its securities for sale to the general public, typically through a stock exchange, or through market makers operating in over the counter markets...
manufacturer of computer multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
products based in Fremont, California
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
. It was founded by Fred Chan and Forrest Mozer in 1984. The firm employs more than 500 people worldwide. Robert L. Blair is the CEO and President of the company.
Historically, ESS Technology was most famous for their line of their Audiodrive chips for audio cards. Now they are known for their line of portable multimedia players.
History
ESS Technologies was founded in 1984 as Electronic Speech Systems, by Professor Forrest Mozer, a space physicist at the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and Fred Chan, a VLSI designer and software engineer, in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
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.
Electronic Speech Systems produced synthetic speech for, among other things, home computer systems like the Commodore 64. 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 sound bytes from the Commodore 64 were "He slimed me!!" from Ghostbusters and Elvin Atombender's "Another visitor - Stay a while, stay forever!" in the original Impossible Mission.
At some point, the company moved from Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
to Fremont, California
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
. Around this time, the company was renamed to ESS Technology.
Later, in 1994, Forrest Mozer's son Todd Mozer, an ESS employee, branched off and started his own company called Sensory Circuits Inc, later Sensory Inc. to market this same speech software and other speech technology.
In the mid 1990s, ESS started working on making pc audio, and later, video chips, and created the popular Audiodrive line, used in hundreds of different products.
ESS is unrelated to the Ensoniq Sound System, another popular sound card often abbreviated as 'ESS'.
Founders
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 sounds from the Mars Lander. He is a member of the board of directors of Sensory, Inc.Fred Chan held a number of positions at ESS, and was CEO of Vialta, an internet offshoot of ESS, until his stepping down on July 18, 2007, to pursue philanthropic interests.
ESS Techonology Inc. exists to this day, located in Fremont, California.
Products
Many products are quoted from Steve Foskett's site. Others are referred to on an SEC form filed by ESS.- 1Q 1996:
ESS1868 AudioDrive
Professor Mozer's Patented Technology
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 Telesensory SystemsTelesensory Systems
Telesensory Systems, Inc. was an American corporation that invented, designed, manufactured, and distributed technological aids for blind and low vision persons...
"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 Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
's Wolf Pack, and Stern Electronics' Berzerk and Frenzy
Frenzy (video game)
Frenzy was an arcade game published by Stern Electronics in 1982. It was a sequel to the hit 1980 arcade game Berzerk.-Description:Frenzy followed the basic paradigm set by Berzerk: the player must navigate a maze full of hostile robots. The goal of the game is to survive as long as possible and...
, and in several of Stern's pinball machines.
After a three-year exclusive deal with Telesensory Systems from 1975 to 1978, Forrest Mozer sold a 3 year license to National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer, that specialized in analog devices and subsystems,formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. The products of National Semiconductor included power management circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers,...
, 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 Sensory Circuits Inc., the technology was licensed there.
According to the Sensory Inc. history pages and old datasheets, they offered three types of compression:
- 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 cards)
- CX
- SX
and a few other PCM/LPC based systems.
Later, Sensory bought up the remains of many old speech synthesis manufacturers from the 1980s, such as Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
' speech division.
Professor Mozer's technique not only produced very realistic sounding speech, it also required very little on-chip (later, in software) RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
, a sparse and expensive commodity at that time. The advanced compression algorhithm (patented, an early form of psychoacoustic compression
Psychoacoustics
Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of sound perception. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the psychological and physiological responses associated with sound...
using similar spectra of ADPCM-encoded waves) reduced the memory footprint of speech about a hundredfold, so one second of speech would require 90 to 625 bytes. With ESS-speech, samples
Sampling (signal processing)
In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous signal to a discrete signal. A common example is the conversion of a sound wave to a sequence of samples ....
that would normally require almost all of the 64 kilobyte
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
memory of the Commodore 64 (if encoded in PCM) were so small, that the entire game fit into the RAM along with speech, without requiring additional loads from disk.
Games featuring ESS-speech
- Fisher Price Jungle Book Reading (Apple ][, 19??)
- Impossible MissionImpossible MissionImpossible Mission is a platform computer game for several home computers. The original version for the Commodore 64 was programmed by Dennis Caswell and published by Epyx in 1984.-Description:...
(c64, 1984) - Ghostbusters (c64, 1984)
- Cave of the Word Wizard (c64, 1984)
- Talking Teacher (c64, 1985)
- Kennedy Approach (c64, 1985)
- Desert Fox (c64, 1985)
- Beach Head II (c64, 1985)
- 221b Baker Street (c64, 1986)
- Solo Flight (c64, 1986)