Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (1978) Apple storing its 200-word vocabulary entirely

storing its 200-word vocabulary entirely in solid-state memory

Originally inspired by Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka’s desire to listen to opera during long-haul flights

The Smurf figurines

which became the system's best-selling game of all time

human voice

Texas Instruments Speak & Spell (1978) Apple storing its 200-word vocabulary entirelyTexas Instruments Speak & Spell First Commercially Released Product to Use Synthetic Speech The Texas Instruments Speak & Spell, unveiled in June 1978, was a watershed moment in digital history, marking the first time the human vocal tract was electronically duplicated on a single chip of silicon. Developed by a small team of engineers, the device utilized a revolutionary speech synthesis chip to turn digital data into a recognizable, albeit robotic,