Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 Channels - Tensilica

Tensilica introduced its new audio products, the Dolby  Digital Plus 7.1-channel decoder designed for High Definition DVD and Blu-ray Disc players. To ensure compatibility with most existing home theater systems, Tensilica will also offer a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/converter.

Tensilica expects, its new Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel decoder and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/converter, will rise up the popularity of its HiFi 2 Audio Engine, to penetrate the home entertainment market. Tensilica provides SOC designers with a drop-in, proven, high-quality 24-bit audio hardware solution with over 20 encoders and decoders for a variety of different audio and speech standards.

Larry Przywara, Tensilica, said:

By porting these Dolby Digital Plus decoders to our HiFi 2 Audio Engine, we were able to take advantage of the hundreds of built-in audio instructions optimized for processing audio streams to make these Dolby software implementations as efficient and low-power as possible…

This gives us a tremendous advantage over implementations using standard, general-purpose 32-bit RISC processors or standard 16-bit DSPs…

Dolby Digital Plus is a flexible audio technology that delivers high-definition sound on optical discs as well as on cable, IPTV set-top boxes and satellite, where bandwidth efficiency is critical. Dolby Digital Plus offers up to 7.1 channels of surround sound and more than three times the audio information of conventional DVDs.

Tensilica's Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/converter enables native Dolby Digital Plus signals to be automatically and efficiently converted to 5.1-channel Dolby Digital, ensuring full playback compatibility with existing home theater systems that support Dolby Digital (AC-3).

Craig Eggers, Dolby Laboratories:

Hardware designers can bypass lengthy design and certification cycles by choosing Tensilica's HiFi 2 Audio Engine and Tensilica's Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel and 5.1-channel decoders, which have already passed our certification process…

Tensilica's optimized HiFi 2 Audio Engine provides an efficient drop-in solution that can help expedite the delivery of new SOC designs for next-generation HD DVD players, Blu-ray Disc players and set-top boxes…

The Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel decoder and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/converter is scheduled to be available in June this year, for all licensees of Tensilica's Diamond Standard 330HiFi or the Xtensa HiFi 2 Audio Engine. Pricing starts at $27,500 for a decoder single project license.

Source: Tensilica’s Dolby Digital Plus 7.1-channel decoder and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoder/converter