More options in HD radio design

Building on the success of the award-winning DSP-based DRI250, Texas Instruments and iBiquity Digital have released two new single-chip HD radio basebands.

Building on the success of the award-winning DSP-based DRI250, Texas Instruments and iBiquity Digital have released two new single-chip HD radio basebands - one offering HD radio technology and the other combining HD radio technology with analogue AM/FM.

Depending on their design approach, designers can choose either of the new digital basebands from TI to provide them with the industry's lowest cost solution for building an HD radio receiver.

The new digital basebands integrate TI's expertise in DSP technology with software developed by iBiquity Digital Corp to provide all of the digital functions required to build an AM/FM and HD radio receiver, in addition to allowing for audio post processing and MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) CD support.

"We continue to drive towards more affordable HD radio solutions, and therefore are very excited to see TI setting the standard on the lowest pricing yet", said Jeffrey Jury, COO of iBiquity Digital Corp.

"This standard was initially set with the pioneering endeavour of TI's DRI250, which placed AM/FM and HD radio technology on the same chip".

"TI's new basebands take this innovative architecture one step further by reducing its costs significantly".

The new TMS320DRI350 brings unparalleled integration of HD radio technology by combining IF-sampled AM/FM and HD radio processing on the same chip.

This integrated design approach is the lowest cost implementation of HD radio technology.

In addition, TI is responding to manufacturers' demand for an HD radio-only solution with its new TMS320DRI300 baseband, providing HD radio functionality, while allowing OEMs to continue using their own proprietary designs for AM/FM support.

The DRI300 allows manufacturers to build on existing solutions and easily add digital radio capabilities.

While not as low cost as the integrated design the DRI350 offers, the DRI300 provides the industry's lowest cost for this particular design approach.

The DRI350 and DRI300 both use a software radio concept, which lowers risk by allowing for the addition of future features even after the development begins.

A clear example of this is the addition of "Tomorrow Radio", a dual-channel radio capability for HD radio receivers, which has now become a standard and integral feature of TI's HD radio basebands.

In addition, this approach allows for the integration of other features in an HD radio receiver including MP3 and WMA CD decode.

"The new low-cost DRI350 and DRI300 basebands build on TI's close relationship with iBiquity and our position as the technology driver in digital radio worldwide", said Naresh Coppisetti, Digital Radio Business Manager at TI.

"For instance, TI currently has the only basebands that offer dual-channel radio as a standard feature".

"As a pioneer in the HD radio market, TI continues to set the standard in HD radio technology with highly integrated software radio solutions that fit manufacturers' design needs at a much lower system cost".

The DRI350 and DRI300 basebands are complemented by TI's mixed-signal DRI8201 chip, which provides the precision intermediate frequency (IF) analogue-to-digital convertor (ADC), digital down convertor (DDC) and control digital-to-analogue convertor (DAC) needed in a complete digital radio design.

The DRI8201 uses an 80MHz, 12bit ADC to digitise the AM/FM IF signal from the radio tuner with the high precision needed for optimum AM/FM and HD radio performance.

Samples of TI's DRI350 and DRI300 HD radio basebands are available now with volume production expected in the fourth quarter of 2004.

TI's mixed-signal DRI8201 chip is available now.

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