The vocoder project

Since the invention of the first vocoder system a half century ago, a steady trend towards lower-cost and more compact realizations of speech analysis and synthesis systems have been evident. The vocoder we designed at UCB was a result of the desire to integrate the entire function of such a system into a single MOS/LSI circuit. At the same time, the opportunity was used to develop a more general design philosophy to facilitate the implementation of other signal-processing functions with the same technology. We created a library of standard circuit functions, the design of which reflects the direction we took in terms of system organization and processor architecture. Essential to this effort was the availability of a modest but well-thought-out collection of computer-aided design tools, and a close association between ourselves and the designers of these tools.