Car-radio processors enable 'fastest' time-to-market

The Accordo2 family offers an independent secure CAN MCU subsystem along with a fully integrated audio subsystem, which includes media decoding, audio routing, sound processing and analogue audio inputs and outputs. The processors, therefore, remove the need for multiple devices.

The Accordo2 family are offered with a complete turnkey software solution that includes middleware, media players, audio codecs, and sound-effect processing, minimising BOM and speeding time-to-market. Application scalability to design a basic car radio all the way up to connected-car radio and display-audio applications is offered by various members of the family. By allowing the reuse of the same hardware and software architectures for all use-case scenarios, this scalability reduces engineering costs.

To handle all media management, connectivity, and audio-decoding functions, the Accordo2 devices include a 32-bit ARM Cortex-R4 core, running at up to 600MHz. Alongside a DSP that supports sound-enhancing algorithms as well as echo noise cancellation for Bluetooth hands-free phone calls, the flagship product (STA1095) incorporates an additional ARM Cortex-M3 controller dedicated to real-time CAN/vehicle interface processing.

“The Accordo2 family offers a platform for customers to develop their own unique products with the lowest BOM and in the shortest time,” said Antonio Radaelli, Infotainment Business Unit Director, STMicroelectronics. “The hardware and software integration that we have built into Accordo2 unleashes unprecedented levels of creativity for customers because they can ‘cut and paste’ our reference design and then modify it quickly to create their own branded products.”

The Accordo2 devices, which are housed in LFBGA 361-ball measuring 16 x16x1.7mm with a 0.8mm pitch, are sampling now. Volume production is scheduled for Q2 2015.