Tensilica HiFi Audio DSP Supports Dolby Digital Plus for Surround Sound on Mobile Devices

SANTA CLARA, California, February 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Tensilica^®, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of Dolby Laboratories' newest technology suite optimized for mobile entertainment experiences - Dolby Digital Plus - on its popular HiFi Audio DSPs.  Now designers of SOCs (systems on chips) for mobile devices can enable stunning audio settings, including full 5.1-channel HD audio.

"We are excited to work with Dolby on their latest software to enhance the mobile user's audio environment," stated Larry Przywara, Tensilica's senior director of multimedia marketing. "This software package, optimized for our HiFi DSPs, provides an immersive audio experience for mobile handsets and tablets that we expect to enable system differentiation and drive greater consumer adoption.  Our first delivery was made to a tier 1 smartphone OEM in Q4 of last year."

"As Dolby technology continues to be adopted by the mobile industry, it is important to have an efficient architecture for low-power mobile devices, which are increasingly used for playing back multimedia content," stated Mary Anderson, senior director, Consumer Devices, Dolby Laboratories. "Dolby Digital Plus running on Tensilica's HiFi architecture will provide an uncompromised HD audio experience for all your mobile devices."

A handset equipped with the newest Dolby Digital Plus technology suite can include a combination of the following features:

• Dolby Digital Plus Decoder - enables HD 5.1-channel sound for headphone playback or HDMI™ play-out
• Dolby Mobile Surround Sound- provides 5.1-channel surround sound over any pair of stereo headphones
• Sound Space Expander - delivers a wide, spacious soundstage for a rich listening experience from speakers
• Bass Enhancements- provides clean, powerful bass extension
• High-Frequency Enhancements- adds back high-frequency audio that might be missing from compressed content
• Mono-to-Stereo Creator - adds depth to the playback of mono content that users download or create
• Sound-Level Controller - maintains a consistent audio playback level so users can set and forget the volume control
• Graphic EQ - equalizes audio with two to six user-adjustable bands

Tensilica's HiFi Audio DSPs are the leading audio DSP IP cores, licensed by over 40 customers including five of the top 10 semiconductor manufacturers and many leading system OEMs. The HiFi Audio DSPs support over 90 audio and voice codecs with very efficient processing at low power. The HiFi Audio DSPs are part of Tensilica's growing line of dataplane processors (DPUs) that efficiently do the challenging, compute-intensive tasks in SOC designs.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. is the leader in dataplane processor IP cores. Dataplane processors (DPUs) combine the best capabilities of DSPs and CPUs while delivering 10 to 100x the performance because they can be optimized using Tensilica's automated design tools to meet specific and demanding signal processing performance targets. Tensilica's DPUs power SOC designs at system OEMs and seven out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for designs in mobile wireless, telecom and network infrastructure, computing and storage, and home and auto entertainment. For more information on Tensilica's patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit http://www.tensilica.com.

Editors' Notes:

• Tensilica and Xtensa are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica, Inc. Dolby and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. All other company and product names mentioned are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
• Tensilica's announced licensees include:  Afa Technologies, ALPS, Aquantia, Astute Networks, Atheros, AMD, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Brocade, Broadcom, Cavium, Chelsio, Cisco Systems, CMC Microsystems, Conexant Systems, Design Art Networks, EE Solutions, Epson, Fujitsu Ltd., Fujitsu Semiconductor, Huawei, iBiquity Digital, Ikanos Communications, Intel, Juniper Networks, LG Electronics, Lucid Information Technology, Marvell, Maxim, NEC Corporation, Nethra Imaging, Novatek, NuFront, NXP, Olympus Optical Co. Ltd.,  Panasonic Mobile, Plato Networks, PnpNetwork Technologies, PowerLayer Microsystems, QLogic, Samsung, Shanghai High Definition Digital Technology Industrial Corporation SiBEAM, Sirius XM Radio ,Sony, Stretch, TranSwitch Corporation, Triductor Technology, Valens Semiconductor, Validity Sensors, VIA, Victor Company of Japan (JVC), and Wolfson Microelectronics.