Fabless chip house SigmaTel will support Microsoft's latest high-end audio distribution standard in its line of codec chips, it says. The C-Major audio codec family is available with Linux drivers, and will support Microsoft Windows Media Audio 9 Professional (WMA Pro) in chips targeting PC-like devices and home-entertainment systems.

WMA 9 Pro is a successor to the original WMA 9 media distribution software released in January, 2003. WMA 9 was the first Microsoft media software available for licensing on non-Windows platforms.

WMA 9 Pro is said to provide “premium audio fidelity to the PC or digital set-top box” with support for 5.1- and 7.1-channel digital audio signals at 24 bit and 96-kHz. A typical application involves using a single digital or optical cable to stream audio content compressed with WMA 9 Pro from a PC to the audio/video (A/V) receiver within a home theater system, which would then decode and output the content.

The SigmaTel C-Major codec line is based on the Intel AC'97 2.3 specification and supports “Universal Jacks,” a feature that is said to recognize and automatically configure microphones, headphones, and speakers as they are connected to the PC. SigmaTel says this improves ease of use while decreasing support costs.

SigmaTel's codec chips are sold to OEMs for integration into “PC-like products.” The Linux drivers can be adapted to different processor architectures “relatively easily,” according to a company spokesperson.

 
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