Alango Unveils Sound Processing Module for Qualcomm S7 SoC

Alango Technologies announced a new digital sound processing module for Qualcomm's Bluetooth SoCs, including the latest S7 Gen1 Sound platform that features five times the compute power, three times the DSP processing power, and almost 100 times on-device AI processing power compared to previous solutions. According to Alango, this first to market platform offers a pre-integrated, ready-to-use modular solution for the latest generation of hearables and advanced audio designs.
The new Alango Sound Processing Module (ASPM) was developed to accelerate development and simplify testing with Alango's DSP software technologies for voice, hearing, and audio processing applications. Enabling a modular approach to implement the most advanced audio algorithms and processing technologies, the module ensures optimal performance for intelligible voice transmission, voice interfaces, audio entertainment, hearing assistance and enhancement, as well as hearing protection applications.

The new Alango module supports Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), BLE Audio, and Auracast, offering robust connectivity options for modern audio applications. This enables designing low power wearable and portable designs but also device-to-device communication applications with high-quality, low-latency audio streaming, and innovative Auracast broadcast transmitter applications. The module specifications include I²S/PCM/TDM up to 32‑bit/384kHz, up to 5x pairs of DMIC interfaces, four ADCs for differential and single-ended modes, and built-in stereo DAC up to 120 dBAW SNR/DR.

As a renown provider of advanced signal processing technologies, Alango designed the Alango Sound Processing Module to support multiple microphones, enabling arrays and advanced directional applications, with adaptive noise suppression and filtering. Benefiting from all the advanced specifications of Qualcomm's SoCs, the module is also ready to power advanced music enhancement and speech recognition features. According to Alexander Goldin, the founder and CEO of Alango Technologies, the creation of the new platform was motivated by the need to quickly meet the requirements from current customers and product development projects, all of which use advanced audio processing features. "We looked for a Qualcomm S7 Bluetooth module and could not find it. Then we decided to build our own. Alango Technologies has been a Qualcomm Voice and Music EXtension Program since 2007 and we believe that adding this module with integrated software to our product portfolio will expand our partnership with Qualcomm to a new dimension and help developers shorten their time to market.

As a pre-integrated, modular software solution running on qualified hardware the Alango Sound Processing Module accelerates development and simplifies testing. It is available in two variants depending on the application. One configuration directly addresses communication systems, enabling applications such as intercom, conference phones, and USB sound cards with advanced DSP features. Another configuration enables consumer and smart home applications, combining the features required for headphones, Bluetooth and Smart speakers, voice activated products, home theater systems, personal sound amplification products, smart hearing protection, sound reinforcement systems, and remote microphones.
 
The two hardware module iterations can combine either Qualcomm's QCC7226 (S7) or QCC5229 (S5 Gen3) SoC ICs, which include a main DSP for audio use cases with low power consumption. The multicore compute architecture with dedicated low latency audio and AI accelerators includes dual-mode Bluetooth and integrated QSPI flash memory. Product designers can embedded the Alango Sound Processing Module directly as a pre-built sound processing solution in mass-market devices, enabling advanced audio features without the need for custom sound engineering.  Alternatively, the Alango Sound Processing Module can function as a cost-effective development platform/tool tailored for Qualcomm S7/S5 applications, ideal for testing and optimization of audio processing features with different audio front-ends. This versatility supports both rapid product deployment and in-depth prototyping for custom sound solutions, together with the ASPM Evaluation Board.

The ASPM EVB and accompanying kit enables real time monitoring of the digital input and output audio streams within the DSP and allows setting VCP parameters on the fly for tuning VCP processing. The board combines interfaces for analog and digital audio, USB interface for power, communication, audio tuning, and software development, push buttons and multicolor LED for manual control, battery power option, and Bluetooth antenna.
www.alango.com