5. A portable speech processing device incorporated within a personal digital assistant or cellphone for use in a distributed speech recognition system for processing a speech utterance, comprising: a first signal processing circuit that generates a first set of speech data values from speech utterance signals associated with the speech utterance, the first set of speech data values being compressed and having a limited data content; a transmission circuit that formats the first set of speech data values by removing NULL data in the first set of speech data values and inserting a single NULL character to denote end of speech and transmits the first set of speech data values over a communications channel to a second signal processing circuit; and a designated button on the portable speech processing device coupled to the transmission circuit such that when the button is pressed, the first set of speech data values are transmitted; wherein the portable speech processing device is configured such that the first set of speech data values are sent in a data stream over the channel during periods when silence is not detected to a server system that includes a second signal processing circuit capable of performing a full recognition of text words in the speech utterance and a natural language engine for performing a recognition of a meaning of a sentence presented in the text words.
5. A portable speech processing device incorporated within a personal digital assistant or cellphone for use in a distributed speech recognition system for processing a speech utterance, comprising: a first signal processing circuit that generates a first set of speech data values from speech utterance signals associated with the speech utterance, the first set of speech data values being compressed and having a limited data content; a transmission circuit that formats the first set of speech data values by removing NULL data in the first set of speech data values and inserting a single NULL character to denote end of speech and transmits the first set of speech data values over a communications channel to a second signal processing circuit; and a designated button on the portable speech processing device coupled to the transmission circuit such that when the button is pressed, the first set of speech data values are transmitted; wherein the portable speech processing device is configured such that the first set of speech data values are sent in a data stream over the channel during periods when silence is not detected to a server system that includes a second signal processing circuit capable of performing a full recognition of text words in the speech utterance and a natural language engine for performing a recognition of a meaning of a sentence presented in the text words. 10. The portable speech processing device of claim 5 , further comprising a routine for permitting a speaker to present the speech utterance simultaneously to a plurality of different natural language engines.