Hoping to cash in on the burgeoning market for MP3 music players, ARM Holdings Plc has launched audio decoding firmware for the compression standard, which can be used with its several of its microprocessor cores. The company claims that using the firmware with a general-purpose ARM core will be more cost-effective for companies manufacturing audio players than using a chip specifically for the application.
Cirrus Logic is the first manufacturer to use the code, along with an ARM720T core, in its new EP7209 personal MP3 player. ARM has also produced a Dolby Digital decoder. The software decoders can be used with ARM7, ARM9 and StrongARM cores. The decoders are available for license now.
