VLSI SongBird DirectSound 3D Accelerator Chip Leads Migration of Audio to the PCI Bus; First Result of VLSI ActiMedia Initiative Targeting Custom and Standard Product Solutions for Digital Audio Applications.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1996--VLSI Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : VLSI VLSI: see integrated circuit. (1) (Very Large Scale Integration) Between 100,000 and one million transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, LSI and ULSI. (2) (VLSI Technology, Inc., Tempe, AZ, www.semiconductors. ) today moves audio to the PCI bus with the release of the VL82C829 SongBird songbird Any oscine passerine (suborder Passere), all of which have a complex vocal organ, the syrinx. Some species (e.g., thrushes) produce melodious songs; others (e.g., crows) have a harsh voice; and some do little or no singing. See also birdsong. 3D audio accelerator chip; the industry's first PC audio solution offering full positional 3D audio and full backwards compatibility with ISA (1) (Instruction Set Architecture) See instruction set. (2) (Interactive Services Association) See Internet Alliance. (3) (Internet Security and Acceleration) See .NET. bus-based, "SoundBlaster"-compatible software. The chip also stands as the first implementation of VLSI's ActiMedia technology, a wide ranging initiative to deliver solutions for custom and standard products serving all sectors of the multimedia marketplace. VLSI Strategic Initiative Umesh Padval, senior vice president for the VLSI Computing Products Group, commented: "The SongBird chip is a breakthrough product for VLSI as the first product demonstrating our ActiMedia solutions portfolio. The VLSI ActiMedia audio technology is a generation ahead of anything currently on the market. "This technology will enable end users to get 3D audio, music synthesis, support for new software coming onto the market, Intel AC '97 and Microsoft DirectSound compatibility, without losing their investment in current multimedia software. The SongBird 3D solution lets manufacturers boost performance, add new capabilities and move decisively to the PCI bus without sacrificing compatibility with previous generation ISA-bus based audio technologies." Migration Market Opportunity PC audio chip technology is moving away from older FM synthesis and stereophonic Sound reproduction that uses two or more channels. Stereophonic is the formal term; "stereo" is more widely used. Contrast with monophonic. technologies to more advanced wavetable synthesis: 3D downloadable sound technologies. At the same time, the PC industry is transitioning from ISA bus architectures to faster, more powerful, less user support-intensive plug-and-play PCI bus architectures. Equally important, both Intel and Microsoft have issued PC standards that give solid guidelines for advanced digital audio solutions. These changes create major opportunities for new players to enter and thrive in the PC audio market. The SongBird audio accelerator, by meeting ISA to PCI bus migration goals and delivering advanced 3D audio capabilities, presents a compelling case to a market saturated with ISA bus-limited solutions. PCI Bus Support The SongBird audio accelerator is the first 3D sound chip that directly connects to the PCI bus while maintaining backward compatibility with ISA bus-based audio. PCI bus compatibility not only makes the SongBird 3D chip an easy design-in on PCI-compatible computers and add-in cards, but PCI-based audio processing consumes less than 10 percent of the bus bandwidth required for ISA-based audio. The higher bandwidth allows the SongBird 3D chip to accelerate processing and layer effects on multiple streams. The chip also includes three DMA (1) (Digital Media Adapter) See digital media hub. (2) (Document Management Alliance) A specification that provides a common interface for accessing and searching document databases. (Direct Memory Access) modes to further insure legacy technology compatibility. 3D Audio, Wavetable Synthesis and Downloadable Sounds The SongBird chip is the first product capable of positioning multiple audio streams, while concurrently performing high quality wavetable synthesis, in full 3D space all around the listener using only two speakers or headphones. This differentiates the SongBird chip from other so-called 3D audio products that simply spatialize stereo (widening the sound field), or spatialize and pan over a half circle or localize lo·cal·ize v. lo·cal·ized, lo·cal·iz·ing, lo·cal·iz·es v.tr. 1. To make local: decentralize and localize political authority. 2. static sound buffers in dedicated local memory. The SongBird chip positions continuous streams of sound over all three dimensions around the listener generating the same psycho-acoustic cues used by the brain to locate sounds in the real world. PCI bus mastering and the ActiMedia embedded DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive allows the SongBird chip to achieve this concurrently with wavetable synthesis, without expensive local memory and without consuming significant CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. bandwidth. ActiWave technology enables sound effects and instruments to be stored in compressed tables of digital audio sounds and then decompressed in real time. Downloadable sound technology offers a virtually unlimited palette of possible content-reproduced and user-recorded sounds. Earlier generation FM-synthesis sound effects consisted of mathematical descriptions of frequency combinations that would artificially produce a given effect. Since the effects are recordings of actual sounds, they offer much higher fidelity than artificially concocted squeals from FM-synthesis chips. Conrad Maxwell, VLSI senior strategic marketing manager commented: "Building from this technical base, the SongBird chip exceeds designer and end user expectations for PC audio capabilities. Spatialization can be layered on other effects. By adding RAM to enable reverb to SongBird-based solutions, designers can offer `concert hall' audio effects." The chip also supports a Dolby Digital or AC-3 MPEG audio decoder MPEG Audio Decoder (MAD) is a GPL library to decode files that have been encoded with an MPEG audio codec, produced by Underbit Technologies. It consists of libmad, a software library, and madplay, a command-line program for MP3 playback. surround sound encoding, or 5.1 channel surround sound for DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. audio playback, using headphones or two speakers for a virtual 3D audio playback environment. ActiMedia Processor Design Advantages The SongBird audio processor's on-chip ActiMedia processor is the key design element giving the product its flexibility and low cost. The ActiMedia hybrid DSP engine enables the chip to support any combination of up to 32 stereo synthesized voices and or sound effect tracks running under an on-chip, embedded multitasking multitasking Mode of computer operation in which the computer works on multiple tasks at the same time. A task is a computer program (or part of a program) that can be run as a separate entity. kernel managing audio-optimized code. Intelligent wavetable caching and ROM-less wavetable architecture opens the door for software-upgradable sound libraries, while the processing bandwidth of the DSP core provides ample computing power to support advanced audio functions. Standards Compliance The SongBird chip supports both the Intel AC '97 and Microsoft DirectSound standards as well as providing full legacy support for SoundBlaster audio. The product is also compatible with General MIDI and Roland MPU See microprocessor. 401 standards. VLSI has developed drivers and utilities for OS/2, Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT operating environments and provides full SoundBlaster compatibility using hardware registers. Expert Partners Firmware for the SongBird 3D chip was created by EuPhonics, Inc. of Boulder, Colorado under terms of a joint development agreement between VLSI and EuPhonics. Additional hardware, firmware and software sub-blocks were created by Echo Speech Corporation of Carpenteria, Calif. Bundled utilities, and new extensions to the DirectSound API, known DEV3D, were developed by DiamondWare, Ltd. of Chandler, Ariz. Leading Game Developer Endorsements The SongBird chip has already attracted enthusiastic endorsements of leading computer game developers including Epic MegaGames (Firefight fire·fight n. An exchange of gunfire, as between infantry units. , Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal), Maxis (SimCity 2000, SimAnt, SimEarth, SimTower), Looking Glass Technologies (Terra Nova, Flight Unlimited), and Papyrus papyrus (pəpī`rəs), a sedge (Cyperus papyrus), now almost extinct in Egypt but so universally used there in antiquity as to be the hieroglyphic symbol for Lower Egypt and a common motif in art. (NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. , INDYCAR II). Quotes from game developers include: "The SongBird spec sounds awesome and I am really looking forward to checking it out and supporting it in Unreal." Tim Sweeney, president, Epic MegaGames "We're looking forward to full positional 3D audio in our SimCopter product. For the first time, SimCity fans will be able to see and interact with their metropolises in 3D. The SongBird 3D audio processor's ability to position individual sounds all around the player can make the audio experience just as real as the visual and take the player to a new level of immersion." Jim Siefert, producer, SimCopter, Maxis "VLSI's audio technology is very exciting. The 3D positioning technology will allow games to use audible three dimensional cues. Not only will you hear your opponent approach, you will be able to distinguish that he is behind you, slightly above and to the right. We plan on using VLSI's API to enable these advanced features months ahead of our competitors." Rob Gurwitz, vice president of product development, Looking Glass Technologies "VLSI offers us a terrific PCI-based audio platform for DOS. Using PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). for audio leaves us more CPU time for computations and drawing, thereby improving the speed of our games. The sound quality is improved, since we can use higher sample rate and more dynamic range. In addition, we intend to use VLSI's 3D sound positioning to dramatically enhance the overall experience for our players." David Kaemmer, chief technology officer, Papyrus Pricing and Availability VLSI will demonstrate the SongBird PC audio processor in its open suite at the COMDEX The former, premier computer trade show in the U.S. Although it grew into an end user event, it was originally created for dealers and distributors (it was the COMputer Dealers EXposition). trade show, Las Vegas Convention Center The Las Vegas Convention Center is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and is located in Clark County, Nevada. It is one of the largest Convention centers in the world. At the end of 2004, the center had 3. Pavilion P314R, Nov. 18-22. The product samples in Q1 1997 with production ramp set for Q2 1997. The company quotes 10,000 unit OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and quantity pricing for the VL82C829 SongBird audio processor at USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. $25. For more information, readers should contact VLSI's Chirag Shah at chirag.shah@tempe.vlsi.com. About VLSI Technology, Inc. VLSI Technology, Inc. designs and manufactures System-Level Silicon solutions based on its FSB (FrontSide Bus) See system bus. FSB - front side bus functional system blocks library. Targeting its offerings toward the communications, consumer digital entertainment, and computing markets, the company offers its customers advanced system-level integration capabilities. The company is based in San Jose, with 1995 revenues of $720 million, and approximately 3,000 employees worldwide. Visit VLSI's homepage at http://www.vlsi.com. -0- Note to Editors: ActiMedia, ActiSound, ActiWave, FSB functional system block, SongBird and System-Level Silicon are trademarks of VLSI Technology, Inc. All other brand or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. CONTACT: VLSI Technology Inc. Martin Chorich, 408/922-5155 martin.chorich@sanjose.vlsi.com |
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