"Up until that time, DSP concepts and theory were really just a university curiosity. There were doubts as to its usefulness," said Gene Frantz, project leader for the Speak

& Spell and now principal Fellow at Texas Instruments (Lubbock, Texas). "We proved that DSP was practical, useful and cost-effective." The three others on the design team were Richard Wiggins, Paul Breedlove and Larry Brantingham.

When the project began in November 1976, the four designers feared they were attempting the impossible. "By the end, our biggest worry was that it was so much simpler than we had thought that someone else must also have done it," said Frantz. No one else did.

The original chip was called the TMC0280, the first-ever DSP, and it was followed in 1982 by the TMS32010, the first programmable DSP.

Frantz formally moved into the company's DSP division, where he remains to this day. Breedlove — whom Frantz credits with having the initial concept of a speaking device — remained at TI until retirement, as did Brantingham and Wiggins.