Have You Watched the Video of Tensilica CTO Chris Rowen?

How can you make software better? Chris Rowen and others discuss different techniques. And yes, there are many ways. See the video.

Shanghai HDIC Picks Tensilica’s HiFi Audio DSP For Digital Television System-on-Chip

"We picked Tensilica's HiFi Audio because it has become the industry standard for audio DSP," stated Dr. Jun Sun, president of HDIC. "HiFi Audio provides superior performance and smaller size/power and is proven in millions of products. Moreover, Tensilica has the most complete library with over 90 audio codecs readily available."

White Paper: How to Manage Video Frame-Processing Time Deviations in ASIC and SOC Video Processors

Some video frames take longer to process than others because of the nature of digital video compression. These wide variations in video-processing time make correct operation of an ASIC or SOC video-processing system unpredictable. A video processor that minimizes processing-time variations in for each video frame enables the design of a more reliable and less expensive system that also consumes less power. Read the white paper.

NXP Picks Tensilica's ConnX Baseband Engine

NXP Semiconductors was the lead partner for Tensilica's first ConnX Baseband Engine (BBE), announced on June 22, 2009. NXP Semiconductors, as the global leader for car entertainment systems, has successfully fabricated the ConnX Baseband Engine DSP in its automotive multi-standard software defined radio innovation platform, a highly flexible baseband processor for satellite and terrestrial digital radio and mobile HDTV (high-definition television) as well as car2X communication. In the latter application, the processor is deployed in multiple Intelligent Traffic System Field Trials around the globe.

"Tensilica presented us with an intriguing application for their customizable dataplane processor technology, and we worked with Tensilica to evolve that into a product that worked very well for our requirements. We needed a DSP that went well beyond what else we could find on the market in terms of optimum power/performance/area," stated Andrew Turley, director of innovation for car entertainment, NXP. "NXP and Tensilica worked together to get a truly optimized solution that has the necessary DSP performance to tackle multi-standard next-generation digital radio applications in a small and power-efficient core." See press release.

Highlights of CES Outside the Tensilica Booth

Highlights of CES outside the Tensilica booth:
- LG and Samsung 55-inch OLED TVs - incredible clarity, lower power, so I can't wait until this becomes affordable
- new Android tablets everywhere
- Some new cell phones but nothing that seemed incredibly impressive
- ultra slim Intel-based notebooks that look like the Macbook Air
- Motorola got into the exercise monitoring business
- I actually was 5 feet away from Snookie when she walked by our booth.
- Amazing all the industries that "feed in" and have booths with cell phone covers, cables, DVD distribution, and even a booth from the US Post Office, selling shipping.
- And amazing how large the big booths are, and how crowded they get.

Tensilica Shows Off HiFi 3 at CES

Tensilica's meeting room MP25166 at the Las Vegas Convention Center has been very busy as we showcase customer designs that implement our HiFi 2 Audio DSP (like the Samsung TV, Fujitsu tablet and LTE phones, Samsung Blu-ray Disc player) and an FPGA implementation of our recently announced HiFi 3. If you're still at CES, be sure to stop by today, the last day of the show.

Tensilica’s HiFi 3 DSP IP Core Provides Over 1.5x Better Performance for Audio Post Processing and Voice in Smartphones and Home Entertainment

"The HiFi 3 DSP is the natural evolution of our popular HiFi 2 architecture, which is the most popular licensable audio DSP core and has been designed into millions of smartphones, Blu-ray Disc players, digital televisions, cameras, and other devices," stated Larry Przywara, senior director of multimedia marketing. "HiFi 3 was initiated based on smartphone OEM and semiconductor manufacturer needs for better power efficiency of high-performance voice and audio post-processing functions. In particular, the HiFi 3 DSP achieves greater than an 80 percent increase in performance for the FFT (fast Fourier transform), FIR (finite impulse response), and IIR (infinite impulse response) math functions that are essential in audio pre- and post-processing, plus a greater than 1.5x improvement in performance for most voice codecs compared to HiFi EP. This performance boost helps significantly reduce the power consumption requirements for leading edge algorithms."
See press release.

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

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. 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 Showcases Latest Customer Innovations in Smartphones, DTV, and Other Consumer Electronics Equipment at CES 2012

For this show, Tensilica has doubled its space in the meeting room area of the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center and will be located at meeting room MP25166. To schedule a meeting, please email paula@tensilica.com.

Tensilica's primary focus at CES is on its HiFi Audio DSP, the clear market leader among licensable audio DSP IP cores. Among Tensilica's demonstrations will be:

- Fujitsu's F-12C Smartphone with integrated HiFi Audio, including "SuperHAKKIRI VOICE (extra-clear voice) 3," which enhances the clarity of the caller's voice in noisy or crowded places, and "PITTARI VOICE (exact voice)," which adjusts the phone's audio to the proper volume based on the user's body movements when walking or running.

- Samsung's BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray Disc player with HiFi Audio.

- Several HD radios with Tensilica's HiFi Audio.

- Samsung's UN55D7000 55" LCD TV with Tensilica's HiFi Audio.

- An FPGA-based demonstration of Tensilica's soon-to-be-announced next generation audio technology.

Tensilica will also showcase the NTT DOCOMO's 4G LTE silicon, based on Tensilica's DPUs. Fujitsu's LTE datacards, the F-05D ArrowsX smartphone, and Arrows Tablet LTE F-01D have already hit the market and more new products are expected at the show.