Cadence Design Systems has announced the Cadence Tensilica HiFi 3z DSP IP core for system-on-chip (SoC) designs targeted for the latest mobile and home entertainment applications, including smartphones, augmented reality (AR)/3D goggles, digital TVs and set-top boxes (STBs). The new HiFi 3z architecture offers more than 1.3X better voice and audio processing performance than its predecessor, the HiFi 3 DSP, which leads the industry in the number of audio DSP cores shipped.
Higher voice sample rates require more complex voice pre-processing. Enhanced Voice Services (EVS), the latest mobile voice codec supporting voice over LTE (VoLTE), supports up to a 48kHz sample rate, compared to 16kHz for the previous AMR-WB codec. The new HiFi 3z DSP delivers more than 1.3X better performance for EVS than the HiFi 3 DSP core. Home entertainment is driving a similar workload increase as audio codecs like Dolby AC-4 and MPEG-H transition from channel-based to object-based. In addition, audio post-processing functions such as Waves Nx 3D/AR audio and the immersive audio of Dolby Atmos-enabled TVs are driving higher complexity signal processing. The HiFi 3z DSP provides more than 1.4X better performance on Dolby Atmos-enabled TVs than the HiFi 3 DSP.
The HiFi 3z DSP offers a number of architecture and instruction set architecture (ISA) improvements over the earlier HiFi 3 DSP, including:
– Dual load/store
– Advanced FLIX bundling (multiple-base ISA operations per cycle)
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– Double the MACs for 16×16 (octal MAC)
– Enhanced ISA for accelerating FFTs, FIRs and IIRs
– New instruction extensions to improve codec (especially EVS) performance for mobile
– 4-way, 8-bit load for improved voice trigger performance
– 8-way, 8-bit load for reduced neural network memory usage
Tensilica HiFi DSPs are the most widely licensed audio/voice/speech processors, with support for over 200 proven software packages and more than 95 software partners in the Tensilica Xtensions partner program. More than 75 top-tier semiconductor companies and system OEMs have selected Tensilica HiFi DSPs for their audio, voice and speech products.
Cadence | www.cadence.com/go/hifi3z
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