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MOORE'S LAW
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Advanced Digital Audio: Stereo on a chip
The second trend highlighted by Motorola's Symphony announcement is the upcoming ADA phenomenon. In 2001 major semiconductor companies will start to release digital chipsets that can handle every audio processing task including amplification. Currently, only Texas Instruments has their solution available in volume. These chipsets will be inexpensive, especially when compared to the many analog and digital parts they replace. For instance, the Pulsus chips go for $7 to $10.This phenomenon is being driven by the rapid convergence of cheap powerful DSPs, advanced digital PWM control theory, accurate psychoacoustic models, pervasive digital audio, MP3, and home theater. Market forces and recent technical advancements are making ADA audio technically possible, cost effective, and in demand.
Not convinced it's happening? Lets see what some of Motorola's competitors have been shopping for lately:
JUL 1999, Tripath licenses DPP to STMicroelectronics
Tripath nonexclusively licensed their digital amplification process for use in commodity markets. In return, the company obtained favorable wafer prices and wafer supply availability.
27 JUL 1999: Cirrus Logic Acquires AudioLogic; Gains Revolutionary PWM and Low-power Audio Technologies
AudioLogic has several patents on low power DSP and feedback techniques for digital amplifiers. It appears that AudioLogic's feedback scheme is being incorporated into Cirrus's amplifier. AudioLogic's low power DSP could be useful for portable applications but may not have much bearing on amplifier performance.
16 MAR 2000: Texas Instruments Acquires Danish Toccata Technology
Toccata developed the EquiBit PWM ampifier process as used by TacT in their $10,000 Millenium amplifier. TacT has a layman's description of the process and its benefits here.
02 OCT 2000: Cirrus Logic Expands PWM Technology Portfolio Through Purchase of Patents From B&W Loudspeakers
Cirrus will introduce 5 amplifier chips using sigma-delta techniques. Four will produce a 110-dB dynamic range, and the highest-power product will have a 120-dB range.
02 DEC 2000: TI releases 4-chip solution for digital audio.
TI is the only vendor currently making volume shipments of an ADA solution.
07 FEB 2001: STMicroelectronics gets exclusive license for Apogee's All-Digital DDX Amplifier Technology
As you can see, digital amplification techniques have become very popular purchases. Philips, MicroSemi, Linear Technologies, and National Semiconductor are not included here because they seem to be using older analog PWM control techniques and focusing on lower cost car and portable applications. STMico has Apogee's technology but has not announced any high power products yet.
It is odd that Analog Devices, who has a huge presence in audio codecs and DSP, has not made any announcements about a digital amplification strategy. Their SHARC DSPs are popular in audio products like the Sony TA-E9000 ES, Bose Lifestyle, and Denon AVR3300 home theater boxes. Their digital to analog converters and asynchronous sample rate converts are well respected. Unless they've got something in the labs, perhaps they should snap up Tripath or Korea's Pulsus. Tripath, being a mixed signal design, might prove too hard to put onto a single chip with a SHARC DSP.
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Why are large DSP and digital audio houses scrambling for digital amplification intellectual property? Maybe it's because they need it to compete for a piece of the projected $3 billion dollar market in two years time.
"PC audio applications represented the largest opportunity in 1998 with nearly half of the $1.55 billion market. According to market research firm Forward Concepts, consumer applications will represent the largest segment by 2003, with a compound annual growth rate of 24 percent and a total available market (TAM) of nearly $1.9 billion. The firm predicts that the overall market, including PC, consumer and professional applications, will represent an opportunity of more than a $3 billion by 2003."
If PC, consumer, professional, and high fidelity products can all use similar chips then the ADA vendors can target most of the audio market with a only a few chipsets. Can you say "economies of scale?" TI and Crystal already have fixed function cores specifically specifically for digital audio.
It's heartening to see that the large semiconductor companies feel that high fidelity reproduction is worth pursuing. The variety of digital amplifier techniques is also good news since it will give vendors a choice and allow market forces to weed out low fidelity approaches.
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AUDIO ECONOMICS 101THE CHANGING FACE OF HIFI HOME THEATERDIGITAL WAVEMOORE'S LAW
ACOUSTICAL BENEFITS OF FRONT PROJECTORS
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