This 5 page paper lists the particulars of the Texas Instrument case study, its rise to technological heights with the invention of the voice microprocessor which debuted in the Speak and Spell toy of 1978. Concerns, questions and history of strategic management of innovations is explored. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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the block. And in Christmas of 1978, if your Christmas tree didnt have the Texas Instruments Speak and Spell toy under it, you were in the minority. The Speak and
Spell game was important for many reasons that year. Not only did it make Texas Instruments a household word again, but it also ushered in the world of the microchip,
designed to recognized vocal commands. This revolutionary technology opened the door to hundreds of new applications. Speak and Spell used a new technique of speech reproduction which was not like
tape recorders that, up until 1977 were the norm. The break through was in the utilization of technology which was not unlike the type Texas Instruments used for their line
of calculators. The solid state speech circuitry(Burglemann,et al 1996) had no moving parts. When it is told to say something, it draws a word from memory, processes it through an
integrated circuit model of a human vocal tract and then speaks electronically(Burgleman, et al 1996). According to records, the way that the Speak and Spell toy worked was that it
could synthesize LPC words and phrases using the microprocessor chip called O280(Burgelman,Maidique,and Wheelwright 1996). Speech data could be stored in up to sixteen 128K ROM chips and plug-in modules
increased vocabulary and provided for versions in French, German, Spanish and British English(Burgleman, et al 1996). The Speak and Spell product included a 4-bit microcontroller, two 128-kbit ROMs and a
speech synthesis chip Burgleman, et al 1996) that paved the way for the single-chip DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSORs that are the center of TIs semiconductor business today (Burgleman, et al 1996).
Initially, the research that led to the discovery of the microcontroller came from research done on behalf of the defense department and department of engorge some years before. Texas Instruments