Sonic Solutions is shipping a new consumer audio encoder aimed at SoC (system-on-chip) and ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) designers building inexpensive Linux-based consumer audio devices on the MIPS architecture, without the benefit of external DSPs (digital signal processors).

Sonic's Dolby Digital AC-3 Encoder is offered as an “intellectual property” (IP) cell that integrates with MIPS Technologies's Consumer Audio Platform, a reference design and silicon IP ecosystem that uses a MIPS processor core, without DSP co-processors, to process multimedia data.

The MIPS “Consumer Audio Platform” includes a third-party IP ecosystem
According to Sonic, the Encoder converts raw audio PCM streams to an AC-3 elementary stream. Stereo, mono, and dual-mono outputs are supported. with bit rates from 64 kbps to 448 kbps and sample rates of 48 kHz, 44.1 kHz, and 32 kHz. The Encoder features a simple API, and does not require floating point hardware or emulation. Typical CPU utilization is under 100MHz, the company says.

The Encoder is optimized for the MIPS32 4Kc processor core and supports Linux directly. It can also be ported to other embedded operating systems, Sonic says.

“Sonic sees significant potential for MIPS Technologies's single architecture approach to audio design,” said Sonic General Manager Jim Taylor.

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