DSP-based module is OEM base for digital audio

The DAE-5 is the latest surround-sound decoder subsystem designed for integration into audio receivers.

The DAE-5 is the latest surround-sound decoder subsystem designed for integration into audio receivers.

It is manufactured by Momentum Data Systems and sold in the UK by Kane Computing.

The DAE-5 digital audio engine offers support for all of the latest decoders and sound field processing algorithms from Dolby, DTS and THX.

Using the DAE-5, equipment designers can save man-years of development time and instead focus on features for product differentiation.

Hardware features include a 32bit floating-point DA610 processor from Texas Instruments (based on the TMS320C6713 core), 24bit 192kHz ADC and DAC input and output stages, S/PDIF inputs and I2S outputs for external DACs or S/PDIF transmitters.

Unlike fixed decoder devices, the software architecture of the DAE-5 is based on the Performance Audio Framework.

This open and extensible framework allows for software customisation (for example to add specific audio processing), as well as in-the-field software upgrades to support new decoder standards.

This process includes decode, post decode, audio stream processing and encode.

The system's device drivers automatically recognise the type of source encoding and automatically switch operation to the correct decoder with no artefacts in the output audio stream.

The stream manager architecture simplifies development of post processing/effects such as room equalisation, dynamic range compression, and surround modes.

The DAE-5 uses the Texas Instruments 225MHz DA610 VLIW processor, which is based on the TMS320C6713 core.

Executing multiple instructions per clock cycle, the DA610 provides the computational power (1800MIPS) to perform all I/O and decoder operations with enough CPU bandwidth left over for sophisticated sound field processing.

The use of floating point arithmetic throughout overcomes the inherent dynamic range limitations of fixed-point (integer) processors.

The DA610 has four floating-point ALUs and two floating-point multipliers, so there is no performance penalty associated with preferred floating point operations.

The DAE-5 is available with the DAE Development Environment (DDE).

This provides access to all DAE-5 signals for testing and evaluation prior to integration into an A/V receiver system.

Access to the DAE-5 control port allows interfacing with a PC or an emulator board running the A/V receiver system software.

Using the DDE developers can fully test out system operation prior to availability of their own A/V receiver hardware.

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