What does a 1978 spelling toy have to do with today's edge AI revolution? More than you might think. In this conversation, Roland Sperlich, vice president and general manager of Processors at TI, sits down with Gene Franz — TI Fellow, DSP pioneer, and one of the original engineers behind the Speak & Spell — to trace a direct line from TI's earliest intelligent devices to the edge AI systems shaping our world today. Gene shares the origin story of the Speak & Spell: a small team, a $25,000 internal grant, an algorithm called linear predictive coding and a belief that speech synthesis on a consumer device was possible even when management, parents and nearly everyone else disagreed. The only ones who believed? The kids. From the challenge of synthesizing a human voice on a toy-grade chip, to building a text-to-speech engine, to the early market-building efforts that put DSP technology in the hands of universities startups worldwide, Gene reflects on decades of innovation that laid the groundwork for modern edge AI. Key topics covered:  The origin of the Speak & Spell  Linear predictive coding and real-time speech synthesis  The evolution from DSP technology to edge AI and AGI  The next biggest edge AI markets  Lessons for today's engineers and managers * Texas Instruments created and marketed the Speak & Spell from 1978 to 1992. Subscribe To "Texas Instruments" Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-EXTfLnOmCKVRJrv8xoGrQ Learn more about TI’s edge AI portfolio and ecosystem: https://www.ti.com/technologies/edge-ai.html Read more about TI’s latest edge AI innovations: https://www.ti.com/about-ti/newsroom/news-releases/2026/2026-03-10-ti-expands-microcontroller-portfolio-and-software-ecosystem-to-enable-edge-ai-in-every-device.html Connect with Texas Instruments: Visit TI WEBSITE: https://www.ti.com/ Follow TI on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/texasinstruments Follow TI on X: https://twitter.com/txinstruments Follow TI on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/txinstruments/ Follow TI on LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/texas-instruments/

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