Intersil Launches New D2Audio Product Family
Setting a new standard for audio quality with the industry's only single-chip audio system solution

DAE-6™ dramatically enhances the music listening experience in consumer products

March 28, 2011 – Intersil, a global leader in the design and production of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, today introduced the DAE-6™ family of single-chip audio system solutions that deliver dramatically improved audio quality in consumer products. This new family is simple to implement and affordable, enabling innovative, high-end audio experiences in a single-chip solution.

The Intersil D2Audio DAE-6 family provides a complete System-on-Chip (SoC) solution that includes an integrated audio processor and a multi-channel Class D amplifier controller. Combining a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) with configurable audio processing algorithms, the DAE-6 offers audio system designers a highly flexible and feature-rich platform. This cost-effective solution meets the growing demand for consumer electronics, such as portable music players, PC multimedia speakers, automotive audio systems, surround bars, and home theater systems including HTiB (Home Theater in a Box System).

Mark Levinson stated, “The new D2Audio solution brings sound quality previously only possible in high-end products to the mass market without additional manufacturing costs.” “The D2Audio Class D amplifier delivers performance that far surpasses high-end devices, providing sound quality equal to or better than the most expensive discrete analog power amplifiers. The DAE-6 family will bring audio innovation to consumer electronics, and through the DAE-6, you will see dramatic improvements in sound quality in everything from portable music players to TV soundbars,” they stated.

The DAE-6 family features proprietary embedded mastering level software, providing consumers with precise tuning for all audio devices. Equipped with the industry-leading D2Audio SRC (Sample Rate Converter) for each audio channel, the DAE-6 family supports a wide range of multi-channel digital and analog inputs, including up to eight channels of asynchronous digital serial input. Multi-channel Class D amplifier outputs can be set to various power levels ranging from 10W to over 500W and include comprehensive error protection, such as automatic recovery, which enhances system performance without wasting power efficiency.

The newly released D2Audio product family provides discrete decoders for Dolby Digital, DTS Digital Entertainment, and AAC encoded audio streams captured via an integrated S/PDIF receiver and configured with up to 12 channels of audio processing. This processing can be configured with multi-band parametric equalizer, filtering, reverb, matrix decoding, and bass management. In addition, the DAE-6 product family includes automatic algorithms that correct for indoor acoustic defects or performance abnormalities of speaker drivers and enclosures.

The DAE-6 family, which is pin-compatible with the original DAE-3 series, provides product designers with the flexibility to convert existing designs without fabricating new PCBs or to create several performance options for products using the same PCB and chassis. The product's integrated topology supports all standard surround sound decoders (including Dolby Digital and DTS) as well as includes complete setup and specification of the signal path. Sample rates ranging from 32kHz to 192kHz accommodate all sources, from low-resolution compressed music downloads to high-resolution PCM outputs from home theater systems and Blu-ray players.

In addition, the DAE-6 solution offers additional design flexibility, including line-level and headphone-level audio outputs as well as speaker-level outputs (supporting bridge, half-bridge, and bridge-tied load topologies), and can be configured from 2 channels to 9.1 channels.

Audio Canvas™ III
The DAE-6's extended DSP programming capabilities are enabled by the release of the new Audio Canvas™ control surface, which significantly enhances ease of use and configuration. Audio Canvas III not only allows designers to configure their audio signal streams and define the DAE-6's peripheral interfaces, but also enables the final system solution through encryption to prevent reverse engineering and maintain security.