Turnkey 24-bit Audio for SOC Designs

Digital audio is exploding, as the next shift occurs in the storage, transmission, and reproduction of sound. A wide range of electronic devices, from portable consumer music players to DVD players to professional sound reproduction equipment, requires the ability to efficiently handle digitally compressed audio.

Digital Audio Requirements

Electronic devices today need to be flexible enough to handle multiple compression standards. Depending on the type of device and its intended use, it may need to have encode/decode (codec) abilities for a number of different formats. Neither traditional approaches to include these codecs in an electronic system are an optimal solution. Fixed-gate configurations usually can only handle one format, and can't be changed to run any others or adapt to changes in standards. Most general-purpose CPUs and DSPs can execute multiple software-defined codecs, but they are very inefficient in both area (instruction memory) and power consumption.

The HiFi Audio Engine is Better

Tensilica's Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine and Diamond 330HiFi audio processor provide new, fully optimized approaches to embedding multiple audio standards into SOC designs. Based on Tensilica's proven Xtensa LX processor technology, they are optimized to run all of the codecs in a pre-packaged, drop-in format with all software components pre-ported. It can approach the performance of fixed-gate implementations, while providing the flexibility, time to market, and risk reduction of a processor. Simultaneously, it reduces silicon area and power consumption.

Read more about the technology behind the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine.

Read the Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine product brief.

See our complete Audio section.

Because these processors are programmable, multiple standards can run on the same hardware, allowing the same device to play or record digital audio in different standards. In addition, designers can further customize the underlying Xtensa LX processor in the Xensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine so it can be used for other functions on the chip.

Here’s a picture of what you get to jumpstart your SOC design when you use the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine.