Tensilica

High-quality audio creates an immersive experience that excites buyers and spurs the purchase of consumer products such as home theater and PC sound systems and flat-panel televisions. The number of digital-audio codecs and audio-enhancement programs has exploded; most consumer products must support multiple codecs and offer a broad range of audio-enhancement features. There is now high demand for a flexible, high-performance, low-power audio engine that adds sound to an SOC's design with the least amount of design effort and a small on-chip footprint. Tensilica's HiFi 2 Audio Engine was carefully crafted to meet these requirements for the broadest possible range of consumer products.

This paper explains the benefits of using programmable system-on-a-chip (SoC) hardware for digital audio, and introduces Tensilica's first-generation HiFi Audio Engine.