Jason Kridner

A programmable DSP solution to a solid state audio player

Portable solid state audio players are currently reaching consumers through the advent of new audio compression algorithms and non-volatile flash memory technology. This paper presents a low-power, software programmable portable audio system utilizing these technologies. The key to this system is a 16-bit, fixed point digital signal processor (DSP) that handles decoding and other features while allowing software upgradeability.

A DSP powered solid state audio system

New audio compression algorithms and non-volatile flash memory technology have enabled the creation of portable solid-state personal audio players. This paper presents a low-power portable audio system based on the Texas Instruments TMS320C5000 DSP family. This system is designed to play music and other audio media stored on flash memory cards that can hold over an hour of CD quality music. The flash card provides higher audio quality than a cassette tape, yet is smaller and more durable than a CD. The music or audio material downloaded to the flash is obtained from licensed distributors, either through the Internet or through kiosks setup in retail outlets. All the audio decoding and watermarking required by this system is handled by the TMS320C5000 DSP. System performance characteristics are also presented.

System-on-a-chip for Portable Audio Player

The software system for portable devices include audio playback, radio application, audio record, movie playback, image viewer applications. In addition, the portable systems can contain gaming and navigation applications. The portable audio players demand low-power and small form-factors differentiated by wide array of audio effects like equalizer, time scale modification (TSM), and cross-fade. This paper describes the system-on-a-chip (SoC) for portable audio players.