Tensilica HiFi Audio DSP Supports Dolby Volume to Eliminate Volume Fluctuations in Home Entertainment Systems and DTVs

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - January 5, 2012 - Tensilica, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of Dolby Volume on its popular HiFi Audio DSPs (digital signal processors). The implementation is based on software developed by Dolby and has passed Dolby's certification. Dolby Volume enables designers of SOCs (systems on chips) for home entertainment systems and digital televisions, and for handsets with mobile DTV, to provide viewers with a consistent playback volume level across all sources and content.

"Viewers have been asking for a high-quality solution to the constant volume fluctuations encountered in commercial content, as they find themselves constantly reaching for the volume control to compensate.  Not only do these constant changes distract from the viewing experience, they also bring the potential for hearing damage when using earbud headphones," stated Larry Przywara, Tensilica's senior director of multimedia marketing. "The Dolby Volume solution, optimized for our HiFi DSPs, ensures a reference-quality listening experience at any volume level."

"Dolby Volume on Tensilica HiFi Audio DSPs is an important addition to the wide range of Dolby solutions available on Tensilica products," stated Giles Baker, senior director, Broadcast, Dolby Laboratories. "As the number of designs based on Tensilica's HiFi DSP increases, we are looking forward to even greater adoption of Dolby Volume."

The technologies behind Dolby Volume, such as loudness-domain signal processing and auditory scene analysis, use advanced models of human hearing based on psychoacoustics, the science of human hearing. This makes it possible to correct source and content level differences without undesirable artifacts, such as pumping and breathing, introduced by previous compression and expansion techniques.

Dolby Volume also actively balances low, middle and high frequencies in each channel to compensate for the ear's changing sensitivity as the playback level is raised or lowered. As a result, the nuances and impact of the original mix are maintained even at low playback levels.

Tensilica's HiFi Audio DSP provides chip designers and system OEMs with proprietary audio processing algorithms with one hardware platform that efficiently runs the most audio standards, as well as proprietary audio enhancement algorithms. Tensilica, its customers and its partners have ported over 80 software packages to the HiFi architecture, so designers can pick the software they need for the application. As the market evolves and new standards are defined, they can easily and quickly be ported to the HiFi architecture, thereby "future proofing" the chip design.

"Tensilica's HiFi architecture is designed to be extremely efficient for applications like Dolby Volume," stated Michael Vulikh, CEO of P-Product.  "HiFi's C-based programming model enabled us to quickly develop an optimized port and meet Tensilica's aggressive delivery schedule."  Tensilica's audio partner, P-Product, did the Dolby Volume port.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. is the leader in dataplane processor IP cores. Dataplane processors (DPUs) combine the best capabilities of DSPs and CPUs while delivering 10 to 100x the performance because they can be optimized using Tensilica's automated design tools to meet specific and demanding signal processing performance targets. Tensilica's DPUs power SOC designs at system OEMs and seven out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for designs in mobile wireless, telecom and network infrastructure, computing and storage, and home and auto entertainment. For more information on Tensilica's patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.

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