Semiconductors Car Audio Amplifiers From
TI Deliver 90 Percent Power
Efficiency
 Ushering in a higher
standard in car audio, TI announced its first digital
amplifiers designed to meet the high reliability and unique
requirements of the automotive market. The TAS5414 and TAS5424 Class D
amplifiers introduce the power efficiency of digital
amplification for automotive audio applications such as head
units and external amplifiers.
Specifically designed
for the automotive market, the TAS5414 is a single-ended input
amplifier, and the TAS5424 has differential input, enabling it
to achieve higher dynamic range performance in a challenging
board-signal-routing environment. The two amplifiers let
designers select the optimum solution given their system
performance and cost requirements.
Features:
| • |
TAS54x4 amplifiers deliver 90 percent power
efficiency at normal radio listening levels for
automotive audio systems. |
| • |
Two TAS54x4 amplifiers provide eight channels of
audio while generating less heat than a four-channel
Class A/B-based system. |
| • |
These devices eliminate the need for expensive
shielding and other EMI countermeasures. |
| • |
Both the TAS5414 and the TAS5424 are
TS16949-certified. |
TI Enables New Automotive
Jukebox Market With High-Speed Ripping
Capabilities
 Automotive
entertainment applications continue to incorporate features
from the home. To meet this growing demand, TI announced
high-speed encoding (HSE) application software and hardware
based on its Aureus™ platform of high-performance audio
digital signal processors (DSPs). This new functionality will
enable advanced capabilities for applications such as
automotive jukeboxes, automotive hard disk drive (HDD)
navigation systems, home media servers and HDD-based stereo
systems.
The HSE solution is ideal for applications
such as a fast and inexpensive CD ripper to USB or NAND flash.
Automotive jukeboxes are enhanced by supporting high-speed
ripping from a CD loader to an HDD while simultaneously
playing back content from USB, a DVD or HDD. In a car, the
system could be simultaneously ripping and playing CDs for the
driver while passengers in the back watch a DVD with
multichannel or virtualized surround sound.
Features:
| • |
The DA710 offers outstanding HSE rates: 20X for
ATRAC3 and 12X for MP3, Windows Media Audio (WMA),
Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) and ATRAC3plus. (Rates listed
are for stand-alone encode only.) |
| • |
HSE functionality creates new product features,
including automatic and transparent storage of content
on a jukebox anytime a new CD is inserted. |
| • |
System cost savings are enabled through software
support of new interfaces to the DA7xx Aureus DSPs.
|
| • |
The high-speed encoding solution is built upon
existing modular application software previously
available for the Aureus digital audio processors for
multichannel decoding applications.
|
New LVDS
Serializer/Deserializer Less Than One-Third the Size of
Competing Devices
 TI has developed
new low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) serializer and
deserializer (SerDes) devices in a 5 mm x 5 mm QFN package. At
less than one-third the size of competing devices, the SN65LV1023A serializer and SN65LV1224B
deserializer save board space in a wide variety of
applications, including wireless base stations, data
communications backplanes, industrial systems, and video
systems such as in-vehicle infotainment and video.
Features:
| • |
100-Mbps to 660-Mbps serial LVDS data payload
bandwidth at 10-MHz to 66-MHz system clock.
|
| • |
No external components required for phase-locked
loop. |
| • |
Qualified for industrial temperature range from
–40°C to 85°C. |
OMAP™ Technology and TI
Third Parties Drive Automotive
Applications
 Helping fuel the
growth of the automotive infotainment market, TI announced key
third-party relationships that will provide manufacturers with
the tools to bring multimedia and communications applications
to the center stack/head unit. TI partnerships will develop and
integrate these technologies, providing a foundation for key
applications such as hands-free connectivity, digital media
middleware and global positioning system (GPS) technology. New
applications leveraging technology from Gracenote, Stonestreet
One, Trimble and Universal Electronics (UEI) represent the
next evolutionary step for digital multimedia and
communications in the car. These innovations are driven by
TI's programmable OMAP™ technology for automotive
applications, a dual-core digital signal processor (DSP) +
RISC architecture designed to efficiently and cost-effectively
implement automotive infotainment
features.
Features:
| • |
UEI’s SimpleWare® Auto provides embedded software
for the complete control and enjoyment of digital media
in automotive products. |
| • |
Gracenote offers an embedded music database
facilitating the automatic recognition of CDs and
digital music files, providing album and track titles
and automatic playlists without requiring Internet
access. |
| • |
Stonestreet One provides Bluetopia®, a robust
Bluetooth protocol stack with various user profiles for
hands-free connectivity. |
| • |
Trimble, a leading innovator in GPS technology,
allows TI customers to minimize GPS integration cost,
improve their development ROI and position themselves to
take advantage of future positioning technologies such
as Galileo. |
Automotive Articles
Data and Audio Processing for HD Radio
John Gardner (Texas Instruments),
Audio DesignLine
Feb. 6, 2006
The
chicken-and-egg quandary "Will broadcasters make content
before receivers are available or will receivers be made
available before content is broadcast?" does not exist - at
least as applied to terrestrial digital radio in the United
States. Several ideas applied to HD radio broadcasts can speed
mass adoption and time-to-revenue.
HD radio has
distinct digital signal processing needs beyond the current
analog radio of today. The added complexity in demodulating
and decoding a base audio signal is coupled with the need to
address data broadcasting and additional audio content. DAB
and satellite provide an example to the HD radio market of how
to effectively merge audio with data, as well as how
broadcasters can effectively promote the technology. Beyond
content and promotion, success in the HD radio market will
come not only from choosing the correct platform that can
handle HD radio signal processing but one that is flexible
enough to take advantage of and exploit both audio and data
features.
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