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News Release from: Tensilica | Subject: Decoders for Dolby Digital Plus
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 03 May 2007
Decoders for use with Dolby Digital Plus
equipment
A Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel decoder designed for HD DVD players and set-top boxes complements a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/convertor used for backwards compatibility.
Tensilica has promised to produce a Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel decoder designed for HD/DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players, and set-top boxes Tensilica will also offer a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/convertor to ensure compatibility with most existing home-theatre systems equipped with coaxial or optical digital audio inputs
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 30 Mar 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Hundreds of specialised audio instructions optimise the 24bit high-precision HiFi 2 Audio Engine DSP to reduce code density (reducing memory requirements) and lower power (reducingMHz requirements), making it a very efficient processor core for a wide range of audio-enabled consumer products.
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Tensilica provides SOC designers with a drop-in high-quality 24bit audio hardware product with over 20 encoders and decoders for a variety of different audio and speech standards.
Dolby Digital Plus is a sophisticated and versatile audio coding system designed for next-generation home entertainment applications, including HD DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players and set-top boxes.
Dolby Digital Plus is a flexible audio technology that delivers excellent high-definition sound on optical discs as well as on cable, satellite and IPTV set-top boxes, where bandwidth efficiency is critical.
Dolby Digital Plus offers up to 7.1 channels of surround sound and more than three times the audio information of conventional DVDs to deliver a rich, involving entertainment experience.
Tensilica's efficient Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel implementation enables support for the simultaneous decode of primary and secondary audio channels as well as simultaneous streams of 7.1-channel content on a single HiFi 2 Audio Engine.
Tensilica's Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/convertor enables native Dolby Digital Plus signals to be automatically and efficiently converted to 5.1-channel Dolby Digital, ensuring full playback compatibility with existing home theater systems that support Dolby Digital (AC-3).
"By porting these Dolby Digital Plus decoders to our HiFi 2 Audio Engine, we were able to take advantage of the hundreds of built-in audio instructions optimised for processing audio streams to make these Dolby software implementations as efficient and low-power as possible", says Larry Przywara, Tensilica's Director of Multimedia Products.
"This gives us a tremendous advantage over implementations using standard, general-purpose 32bit RISC processors or standard 16bit DSPs".
"Hardware designers can bypass lengthy design and certification cycles by choosing Tensilica's HiFi 2 Audio Engine and Tensilica's Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel and 5.1-channel decoders, which have already passed our certification process", stated Craig Eggers, senior partner marketing manager, Dolby Laboratories.
"Tensilica's optimised HiFi 2 Audio Engine provides an efficient drop-in solution that can help expedite the delivery of new SOC designs for next-generation HD DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players and set-top boxes".
Both new Dolby Digital Plus decoders will be available for shipment in June 2007 for all licensees of Tensilica's Diamond Standard 330HiFi or the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine.
Pricing starts at US $27,500 for a decoder single project license.
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