CSR helps austriamicrosystems portable media player design

Austriamicrosystems' design uses the company's AS3525/27 MP3 player chip to enable enhanced MP3 players and PMP devices that use Bluetooth technology to simplify the sharing of music. By using CSR's BlueCore4-ROM, austriamicrosystems is able to leverage CSR's market-leading wireless technology and low-power, small-size wireless hardware to provide OEMs with designs.

Power is clearly a top concern for all mobile product manufacturers, and austriamicrosystems' versatile, highly integrated, ARM9-based SoC AS3525 and AS3527 meet this requirement, making MP3 players consume only 50mW total power and provide more than 200MIPS processing power. The device delivers video playback to LCD and OLED screens at 30 frames per second and QCIF+ resolution, while streaming high-definition voice over separate headphone and line outputs. Its system firmware, Microsoft PlaysForSure V2.2 and Windows Vista, is compatible with MP3, WMA, AAC and OGG audio, JPEG, GIF and BMP images, as well as MPEG4 and Microsoft WMV Mobile Video video content. The AS3525 is a fully integrated design for audio and video playback and helps designers reduce time to market. It also includes innovative lighting management technology that produces a colorful effect that is synchronized with music playback to enhance the listener's experience.

CSR's BlueCore technology is used in reference designs, allowing users to stream MP3 files directly to MP3 compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. Since BlueCore supports native MP3 encoding, MP3 streaming files are sent directly to another device without transcoding files from MP3 to SBC (Bluetooth default encoding), thus reducing power consumption and improving music quality. BlueCore provides interoperability of industry-leading Bluetooth devices. The PMP with a reference design from the austriamicrosystems company will have the widest range of Bluetooth device compatibility. CSR's BlueCore Host Software (BCHS) software stack runs directly on austriamicrosystems' application processors and can be quickly and easily upgraded to add RF radios, UniFi-1 WiFi drivers and other wireless technologies.

Roberto Simmarano, senior director of marketing communications at austriamicrosystems, said: "Austriamicrosystems' reference design helps device manufacturers easily develop high-performance mobile entertainment products and integrate key features such as Bluetooth connectivity. Partnership with CSR enables us The first fully integrated reference design for MP3 players, enabling users to stream music to both headsets via Bluetooth and native MP3 file support. Our customers expect the best technology while Minimizing time-to-market limits is why we have long-term cooperation with leading Bluetooth technology provider CSR."

Tracy Hopkins, vice president of CSR's Consumer Strategy Business Unit, said: "Device manufacturers want more integration of their products, so the need to integrate Bluetooth connectivity is increasing. Consumers especially want to be able to stream two or More Bluetooth headsets deliver music, which is what makes this design special. Austriamicrosystems' BlueGore technology's mobile entertainment reference design provides OEMs with a cost-effective solution that enables them to connect Bluetooth quickly and easily Integrated into existing and new products."