MIPI Alliance Announces New Soundwire Device Class for Audio (SDCA) Specification

The MIPI Alliance, the international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, announced the release of MIPI SoundWire Device Class for Audio (MIPI SDCA) v1.0. The new specification enables standardized mechanisms to interact with host-controllable audio devices, such as microphones and amplifiers, connected via a MIPI SoundWire interface. This significantly simplifies and streamlines platform development.

Cirrus Logic is offering an advanced audio solution to help ease PC manufacturers' migration to the MIPI SoundWire interface (1.2.1 specification) for a richer, more immersive audio experience. At the heart of the Cirrus Logic advanced, low-power audio solution are the company’s recently announced CS35L56 smart amplifier and CS42L43 Smart HIFI codec that are included in the Intel SoundWire-ready reference design aimed at helping laptop designers make a smooth migration to the new specification.

Cirrus Logic announced a premium audio solution built specifically for PCs that enables a louder, more immersive audio experience, whether listening to voice calls and music from the small internal speakers on ultrathin laptops or from headphones. Built specifically for PCs, the Cirrus Logic CS35L56 smart amp and CS42L43 SmartHIFI codec minimize hardware and software design complexity for OEMs, simplifies design for PC manufacturers and contributes to a reduction in the total number of components and board space.

TDK introduced new digital MEMS microphones as part of its SmartSound family of products for mobile, TWS, and other consumer devices, providing advanced feature sets in small package footprints. The T5848 offers the highest dynamic range with I2S direct audio connectivity to a wide variety of SoCs, MCUs and IoT processors. And TDK also introduced the T5828 MEMS microphone with MIPI SoundWire functionality, adding 68dBA SNR and Acoustic Activity Detect features with always-on ultra-low power mode.

Among the many interesting demonstrations of new audio solutions for developers presented by TDK at CES 2020, the T5808 MIPI standard SoundWire microphone stands out as a "world's first," using the MIPI Alliance SoundWire compliant digital interface which allows bi-directional data flow. The T5808 is a multi-mode, low noise digital MEMS microphone in a small package, consisting of a MEMS microphone element and an impedance converter amplifier followed by a fourth-order Σ-Δ modulator.