Tensilica Adds Coding Technologies' MPEG-4 aacPlus(TM) to Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine; Tensilica's Engine Makes it Easy to Add Audio to New Chip Designs.SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Coding Technologies, the leading provider of audio compression technology for mobile, broadcasting and the Internet, and Tensilica(R), Inc., the leader in automated configurable processor technology, today announced that Tensilica has selected Coding Technologies' aacPlus codec for its Xtensa(R) HiFi 2 Audio Engine. Coding Technologies' codec has been ported and performance-optimized for the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine, allowing designers to quickly add high-performance audio functionality to their new chip designs. "We've seen strong demand for MPEG-4 aacPlus among our customers who are interested in adding music download, playback and TV to mobile phones," stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica's vice president of marketing. "Coding Technologies is a recognized innovator in digital audio technology and their well executed aacPlus implementation greatly simplified the development of a highly optimized port for our HiFi 2 Audio Engine." Already standardized by MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). , 3GPP GPP Government Performance Project GPP General Purpose Processor GPP General Physical Preparedness GPP Gambian People's Party GPP Good Pharmacy Practice GPP Gross Primary Productivity GPP Green Procurement Program GPP Generic Packetized Protocol and DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) An international digital television (DTV) standard that is the European and Far Eastern counterpart of the North American ATSC standard. (Digital Video Broadcasting) as the codec for high quality content delivery aacPlus v2 is AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. AAC, especially MPEG-4 AAC, provides greater compression and better sound quality than MP3, which also came out of the MPEG standard. coupled with Coding Technologies' SBR (Spectral Band Replication (audio, compression) Spectral Band Replication - (SBR) Guessing the nontransmitted higher frequency range of a compressed audio file by some helper bits (transmiited with the stream) and the transmitted base band. ) and Parametric Stereo technologies. Both SBR and Parametric Stereo are backward and forward Adv. 1. backward and forward - moving from one place to another and back again; "he traveled back and forth between Los Angeles and New York"; "the treetops whipped to and fro in a frightening manner"; "the old man just sat on the porch and rocked back and forth all compatible methods to enhance the efficiency of any audio codec. By using a unique bandwidth extension technique, SBR enables audio codecs to deliver the same quality at half the bit rate. Efficiency is further enhanced with Parametric Stereo for low-bit-rate stereo signals. Using these techniques, aacPlus delivers streaming and downloadable CD-quality stereo at 48 kbps, near CD-quality stereo at 32 Kbps, excellent quality stereo at 24 Kbps, and great quality for mixed content down to 16 Kbps and below, enabling new mobile and digital broadcast applications. The aacPlus v2 codec is a full superset A group of commands or functions that exceed the capabilities of the original specification. Software or hardware components designed for the original specification will also operate with the superset product. However, components designed for the superset will not work with the original. of aacPlus v1 (includes support for SBR) and AAC-LC. Codec packages are also available for the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio engine for aacPlus v1 and AAC-LC. Tensilica's Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine is an add-on package for Tensilica's proven Xtensa LX processor, optimized specifically for today's consumer audio functions. As a low-power turnkey solution, the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine enables system-on-chip (SOC) designers to quickly design audio-enabled devices such as cellular phones, portable music players, DVD drives, and set-top boxes. The Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine employs an audio-specific set of over 300 audio-specific DSP (digital signal processing See DSP. Digital Signal Processing - (DSP) Computer manipulation of analog signals (commonly sound or image) which have been converted to digital form (sampled). ) instructions created specifically by the engineers at Tensilica to optimize the Xtensa LX processor for audio. "Tensilica established a strong customer base with its first Xtensa HiFi Audio Engine," stated Victor Kanevsky, Sr. Director Strategic Alliances, Coding Technologies. "The addition of aacPlus to their next generation audio engine will provide an extremely competitive offering to leading companies designing advanced mobile devices." Pricing and Availability Pricing starts at $44,000 for the AAC-LC decoder. Designers will also need to license the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine and the accompanying Xtensa LX processor. All codecs are available now. About Coding Technologies Coding Technologies provides the best audio compression for mobile, broadcasting and Internet. SBR(TM) (Spectral Band Replication) from Coding Technologies is a backward and forward compatible method to enhance the efficiency of any audio codec; putting the "PRO" in mp3PRO and the "plus" in aacPlus. Parametric Stereo from Coding Technologies and Philips again significantly increases the efficiency of audio codecs for stereo signals at low bit rates. Products from Coding Technologies are fundamental enablers of open standards such as MPEG, Digital Radio Mondiale (communications) Digital Radio Mondiale - (DRM) A form of monaural digital broadcast using carrier frequencies below 30 MHz. DRM uses MPEG-4 AAC Main Profile and SBR at data rates of 16-25 kbps. http://drm.org/. , HD Radio, and the DVD Forum. Coding Technologies is a privately held company privately held company A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. with offices in Sweden, Germany, and Silicon Valley. Founded in 1997 in Stockholm, the company later merged with a spin-off of the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, the inventor of MP3. Coding Technologies' customers include America Online, iBiquity Digital, mm02, Nokia, RealNetworks, SK Telecom, Thomson, Texas Instruments, Vodafone, and XM Satellite Radio. For more information, visit www.codingtechnologies.com. About Tensilica Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific microprocessor solutions in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa, Tensilica is the only company that has automated and patented the time-consuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours. For more information, visit www.tensilica.com. Editors' Notes: --Tensilica and Xtensa are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica, Inc. aacPlus is a trademark of Coding Technologies. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. --Tensilica's announced licensees include Agilent, ALPS, AMCC AMCC Applied Micro Circuits Corporation AMCC Air Mobility Control Center AMCC Ashore Mobile Contingency Communications AMCC Advanced Materials Commercialization Center AMCC allied movement coordination center (US DoD) (JNI Corporation), Astute Networks, ATI, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, Crimson Microsystems, ETRI ETRI Electronics & Telecommunications Research Institute (Korea) ETRI Enhanced Threat Reduction Initiative ETRI Electronics Telecommunication Research Inc. , FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HNS), is a provider of broadband satellite network products for businesses and consumers. HNS pioneered the development of high-speed satellite Internet access services and IP-based networks with its original DirecPC service but which it now markets , Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. Laboratories America, NEC Corporation, NetEffect, Neterion, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), NVIDIA, Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., sci-worx, Seiko Epson, Solid State Systems, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Stretch, TranSwitch Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan (JVC). |
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