Conexant intros Dolby headphone decoder IC

USA: Conexant Systems Inc. announced the CX20873, a Dolby headphone decoder integrated circuit (IC) featuring Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3) decoder, Dolby Pro Logic II, and Dolby Headphone in addition to Conexant’s proprietary advanced voice processing algorithms.

Conexant is a major audio IC supplier for Smart TV, gaming and PC multimedia audio accessories. The introduction of the CX20873 Dolby Headphone decoder IC complements Conexant’s existing portfolio and provides customers with turnkey solutions for entertainment, game headsets and audio peripherals.

This highly integrated chip includes high-speed USB2.0, I2S, tri-color PWM LED drivers, SPDIF and more.  The rich feature set reduces external BOM costs and provides flexibility to customers in designing their audio products. Additionally, Conexant’s reference design kit significantly reduces development time.

Combined with Dolby’s revolutionary Dolby Headphone signal processing technology, the CX20873 delivers up to 7.1-channel surround sound over standard headphones for a richer and more spacious headphone audio experience.  The solution is ideal for applications including cross-platform game console headsets, USB headsets, headphones, USB audio adapters, and other game accessories.

"Dolby Headphone technology lets you hear every window smash, feel every explosion, and experience every wipeout as if it's really happening,” said Spencer Hooks, senior manager, Online Services & Gaming, Dolby Laboratories. “With Dolby Headphone you not only get a high-quality surround-sound experience, but you can listen longer and more comfortably. More importantly – to gamers – is the competitive advantage it can deliver by allowing a listener to better pinpoint enemies and obstacles that aren't even onscreen.”

“In addition to Dolby Headphone, the CX20873 brings PC and console gamers benefits from Conexant’s proprietary voice and audio processing algorithms such as acoustic echo canceller, ambient noise suppression and microphone auto gain control to deliver a crystal clear voice - without carrying ambient noise to other gamers within the gamescape,” said Saleel Awsare, Conexant VP and GM.

Dolby headphone technology delivers up to 7.1-channel surround sound over any standard headphones. The CX20873 allows users to combine Dolby headphone technology with either Pro Logic IIx or Pro Logic IIz processing, while simultaneously decoding multi-channel encoded streams received from an external source over SPDIF or a USB 2.0 interface.

Conexant’s proprietary voice processing algorithms deliver superior audio and voice quality and meet industry standards such as TIA-920 and Skype hardware specifications. The algorithms include acoustic echo cancellation, microphone noise reduction, parametric equalizer, and dynamic range compression.

Key features include:
• High-speed USB2.0 DeviceS/PDIF transmitter and S/PDIF receiver.
• Full duplex stereo I2S/PCM.
• Serial peripheral interface (SPI) master and slave.
• Inter-integrated circuit (I2C) master and slave.
• Two sets of tri-color PWM LED drivers, fully configurable.
• Quad digital microphone PDM interface.
• Six dedicated general-purpose I/Os (GPIOs).
• On-chip programmable PLLs.

Pricing starts at $3.59 each in 10K quantities.