Jan. 26, 2026 –
By Duane Benson, allaboutcircuits.com
Announced today, Cadence's new Tensilica HiFi iQ DSP doubles compute, octuples AI performance, and cuts power by 25% over its predecessor, targeting next-gen AI-voice and immersive automotive audio.
Today, Cadence announced the production-ready IP for its sixth-generation HiFi digital signal processor (DSP). The Tensilica HiFi iQ DSP is built around a new purpose-built architecture for AI-voice and immersive audio applications. The new chip outperforms the prior generation, Tensilica HiFi 5s DSP, by 2X in compute performance, 8X in AI performance, and 40% in many audio codecs. It achieves these improvements while dropping energy consumption by 25% with most workloads.
Immersive and AI-powered automotive audio is one of the primary use cases for the new HiFi iQ DSP. Audio in vehicles and other consumer devices is no longer a simple one-way sound blast-out. Audio now requires generative and interpretive AI for two-way voice communications, environmental interpretation for warnings, notifications, and comfort, and high control over entertainment sound for quality and information integration. Behind those advanced capabilities are the newest generation DSP and audio-AI processors, such as the new 6th generation Tensilica HiFi iQ DSP.