Analog Devices’ latest processor boosts sound experience in audio systems

BENGALURU: Analog Devices Inc (ADI) has announced the addition of ADSP-SC57x and ADSP-2157x processors to its growing series of single-chip multicore SHARC processors. The devices advance the audio experience by enabling superior sound quality and more cost-effective and reliable audio systems.

The company says that by leveraging Analog Devices’ SHARC technology along with an ARM Cortex-A5 processor, the series provides a high performance, low cost, single-chip solution for complex applications involving the latest three-dimensional audio surround or advanced active noise cancellation algorithms with performance remaining for further audio post-processing.

The company’s target applications include automotive premium audio, consumer and pro-audio, and industrial systems that require high floating-point performance. With more than 2 MBytes of on-chip memory, designers are able to realize higher DSP performance at lower power while reducing system complexity, time to market, board space, and cost. With the ADSP-SC57x processors, the SHARC+ cores and the DSP accelerators provide real- time performance while the ARM Cortex-A5 processor handles connectivity and system operation. The ARM NEON engine provides additional signal processing capability if needed. These features are coupled with the latest interface technology including Gigabit Ethernet AVB, MLB for MOST150, CAN 2.0B, USB2.0 and mobile storage, which are all managed independently by the ARM processor and provide optimal flexibility in system design from a common product series.

The ADSP-SC57x processors provide scalable performance with ARM and single- or dual-SHARC+ DSP variants in two package options that include large on-chip memory and the choice of with or without external DDR3(L)/DDR2/LPDDR1. These options allow designers to optimize both BOM cost and board complexity. The ADSP-2157x series is designed for applications for which only a DSP is needed and includes two SHARC+ cores, a DSP-centric peripheral set and computational accelerators. With the demand for increasingly complex audio algorithms in automotive and consumer applications, such as multi-channel audio decode and active noise cancellation, the series’ superior DSP performance can meet challenging requirements.

The new processors include ARM TrustZone security, integrated cryptographic hardware accelerators and secure OTP memory for key storage to mitigate growing industry concerns around software IP protection.

The overall integration, low power, and automotive temperature range options deliver significant BOM and board area savings, which, in turn, provide lower design complexity with reduced time to market for applications. This includes the flexibility to operate within smaller enclosed areas at high automotive temperatures without needing heat sinks or fans. For applications with reliability as a critical requirement, memory parity and error-correction hardware provide higher data integrity.

The ADSP-SC57x and ADSP-2157x processors are supported by Analog Devices’ award-winning CrossCore Embedded Studio suite, providing design engineers with interactive, real-time development tools. Additionally, SigmaStudio TM support provides an extensive selection of optimized audio libraries with easy-to-use graphical audio development and tuning tools for faster time to market. An optimized royalty free Ethernet AVB stack developed and supported by Analog Devices, AUTOSAR MCAL drivers, and many third-party algorithms and software components are available specifically for automotive applications. Linux and Micrium RTOS support is available for the ADSP-SC57x processors.