The MIPI SoundWire specification was introduced by the MIPI Audio Working Group in 2014 to help consolidate many of the key attributes in mobile and PC audio interfaces to provide a common, comprehensive interface and scalable architecture to enable audio features and functions in multiple types of devices. The v1.2.1 specification (June 2022) supports the use of advanced amplifiers and microphones and helps optimize speaker protection, microphone power and performance, noise cancellation and always-listening audio input.
Along with this recently introduced audio solution optimized for the PC platform, Cirrus Logic is collaborating with Intel and Microsoft to help ease the transition to the SoundWire interface and scalable architecture to deliver even better audio in next-generation laptop designs. This goal is to allow PC OEMs a scalable, frustration-free migration to new audio specification.
"The migration toward the SoundWire interface brings needed improvement and forward progress to PC audio design, but for OEMs it still means a platform change," says Peter Cooney, founder of SAR Insights.
To do this, Cirrus Logic offers a combined PC audio solution that contains a smart amplifier and codec that lowers the overall bill of materials. Both the Cirrus Logic CS35L56 smart amplifier and CS42L43 SmartHIFI codec provide for simple integration with a SoundWire Device Class Audio (SDCA) manager and are designed to work within Microsoft’s ACX framework.
"At Cirrus Logic, our product development has not only been engineered to offer immersive audio but also help OEMs accelerate their design process to be compatible with upcoming SoundWire specifications," says Carl Alberty, vice president of Cirrus Logic's Mixed-Signal Products group. "This includes working closely with industry leaders, such as Intel and Microsoft, on the MIPI SoundWire integration design-in so that our customers come away with a more streamlined and differentiated audio solution that can scale throughout their product offerings."
"Intel has been working diligently within the industry, and with the Audio Working Group, to help accelerate the advancement of the PC platform and improve audio performance," adds Ken McKee, general manager of Client Customer Engineering and vice president of the Client Computer Group for Intel. "Companies like Cirrus Logic that align with these goals help make the transition easier for OEMs to adopt so that greater innovation can be achieved. Such collaborative industry efforts benefit PC OEMs with more flexible design while offering the user a richer audio experience."
Offering both flexibility and extendibility, Cirrus Logic’s smart amplifiers and codecs offer a combined hardware, firmware and Windows driver solution that is compatible across industry-leading processors and with any number of speakers. By choosing the number of CS35L56 amplifiers to pair with the CS42L43 codec, OEMs can scale their solutions for performance and value while simplifying their SoundWire design implementations.
As part of the SoundWire-compatible reference design from Intel, Cirrus Logic's CS35L56 smart amplifier helps PC manufacturers deliver rich audio with deeper bass, balanced sound and dynamic range from compact multiple-speaker designs in the thinnest of laptops. For a top-tier headset audio experience, the Cirrus Logic CS42L43 PC audio codec delivers great voice clarity, high dynamic range and low distortion.
Cirrus Logic has shipped more than five billion amplifiers in five of the top 10 smartphone manufacturers and four of the top five PC OEMs. Spanning several decades, Cirrus Logic’s flagship expertise has contributed to a variety of audio applications across the pro audio, PC, mobile and smartphone audio markets.
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