Tensilica Supports MPEG-4 AAC-LC and aacPlus Multi-Channel Decoders for 7.1 Surround Sound

We've offered our customers stereo AAC-LC and aacPlus decoders for several years with great success in the handheld and portable device markets, and we're now seeing strong demand for multi-channel versions in home entertainment multimedia products, stated Larry Przywara, Tensilica's marketing director for mobile/multimedia products. In addition, we have further improved the memory requirements of the stereo decoders with reductions of up to 62 percent for data RAM and 25 percent for code size. Dolby's aacPlus implementation sets the standard for quality and ensures that customers will enjoy an exceptional audio experience.

Multi-channel AAC-LC and aacPlus is now being deployed in the broadcast and consumer segments. We are delighted to be cooperating with Tensilica to hasten this process with certified implementations on their HiFi 2 Audio Engine, stated Martin Dietz, vice president, Dolby Laboratories. This will enable companies to accelerate the design of the next generation audio chips that include this audio standard as well as other system features, reducing cost and power in many applications.

aacPlus v1 is a superset of AAC that adds Spectral Band Replication (SBR), a unique bandwidth extension technique that enables audio codecs to deliver the same quality at half the bit rate. aacPlus v2 adds Parametric Stereo (PS), which significantly increases the codec efficiency a second time for low-bit-rate stereo signals. aacPlus v2 is specified as the high-quality audio codec in the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a collaboration for standards for third generation mobile phones.

These new decoders are just three of many Dolby products supported by Tensilica's HiFi 2 Audio Engine. Tensilica also offers Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and 7.1-channel decoders, Dolby Digital Consumer Encoder 5.1, Dolby Digital Compatible Output 5.1, and AAC-LC, aacPlus v1 and v2 stereo decoders and encoders. The Tensilica HiFi2 Audio Engine is available to users of Tensilica's patented, market-leading Xtensa configurable processors, and is also available in an off-the-shelf audio DSP IP core - the Diamond Standard 330HiFi processor.