Motorola Inc’s Austin, Texas-based Microprocessor and Memory Technologies Group has released its general purpose, 24-bit signal processor for audio and ambience effects, the Symphony DSP56004. The device is aimed the automotive and consumer audio electronics applications such as in-car entertainment systems, digital speakers, digital amplifiers and Dolby Inc’s Surround Pro-Logic system for television. It is being evaluated by manufacturers including Becker AG of Karlsbad, Blaupunkt GmbH of Hildesheim and Volkswagenwerke AG in Wolfsburg, Germany; Ford Motor Co in Deerborn, Michigan; and Nokia Oy in Salo, Finland. The processor can mimic the reverberations and echoes of jazz clubs, concert halls or stadia by using synthetic reverberations obtained by delaying and digitally filtering some signals. It also compensates for the acoustic limitations caused by reflective surfaces, compartment size and number of passengers in vehicles, the company says. The DSP56004 offers all the architectural features of the 24-bit 56000 product family with added digital-audio specific enhancments. It delivers 20 MIPS, and its 50nS instruction cycle is driven by an internal 40MHz clock. It has a low-cost host interface for communication with any central microprocessor, an external memory interface for glueless communication with static RAMs and dynamic RAMs which hold stored audio files, and a serial audio interface, simplifying the interface with analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue converters. The device supports leading serial audio interface standards including the Philips Electronics Inc Inter-IC Sound and Sony Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co formats. There is also a serial interface for microcontrollers using Motorola’s Serial Peripheral Interface or Philips’ Inter-I.C. Control formats. An on-chip phase-lock loop enables an internal clock frequency of up to 40MHz to be generated from an external crystal oscillator with a frequency as low as 9.8KHz. Motorola’s on-chip emulation technology is also included. The DSP56004 is now available for $37 when you order 1,000 or more in an 80-pin quad-flat pack pack.
