Log in / create account
What's your thing?
 
Search

Endpoint: Electronic Speech Systems



created on: 24/06/2019
by: Lo55o (12464)
 
 

Brand properties

General info :
Electronic Speech Systems is the business name of ESS Technology Incorporated, a private manufacturer of computer multimedia products, Audio DACs and ADCs based in Fremont, California with R&D centers in Kelowna, BC Canada and Beijing, China.
It was founded by Forrest Mozer in 1984. 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 Sabre DAC and ADC products.

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 bites 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 that time, the company was renamed to ESS Technology.

In the mid-1990s, ESS started working on making PC audio, and later, video chips, and created the Audiodrive line, used in hundreds of different products. Audiodrive chips were at least nominally Creative Sound Blaster Pro compatible. Many Audiodrive chips also featured in-house developed, OPL3-compatible FM synthesizers (branded ESFM Synthesizers). These synthesizers were often reasonably faithful to the Yamaha OPL3 chip, which was an important feature for the time as some competing solutions, including Creative's own CQM 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 DMA and the SB-Link interface.[citation needed]

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.
Source :
Copied Wikipedia parts under license :
ENA's Electronic Speech Systems Berkeley CA

Video Games

(2 items)

Item number : 26877

Submitted by : Lo55o (12464)
on : 24/06/2019
Refined by : Lo55o (12464)
Last updated on: 24/06/2019