Atmel® Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML), a leader in microcontroller and touch technology solutions, today announced a complete Digital Audio Platform for consumer, automotive and industrial applications. The Atmel Digital Audio Platform offers audio equipment and mobile accessory OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) a complete hardware and firmware solution that greatly simplifies the task of designing high-quality digital audio equipment. The new Digital Audio Platform is implemented with the Atmel AVR® UC3 microcontrollers specifically tailored for audio applications such as smartphone and media player docking stations. The Digital Audio Platform integrates dedicated microcontrollers, evaluation kits and firmware IP. The firmware IP includes control and streaming interfaces for a selection of popular smartphones and portable media players as well as MP3, WMA and AAC decoders to allow designers to decode compressed music files; USB protocol stacks; and a complete file system to allow designers to navigate through mass storage devices such as USB Flash disks or SD cards. The platform uses a ready-to-go commercial licensing model for firmware IP that enables designers to keep their firmware code confidential, unlike many audio license agreements today that require the firmware code to be open. The Digital Audio Platform is ideal for applications including docking stations, USB mass storage, SD card playback, car stereos, USB speakers, microphones, and various voice and music equipment. Other applications include mobile accessories (accessories connected to smartphones or tablets) that use the same underlying technology. With all the benefits of the Atmel AVR UC3 microcontrollers, the Digital Audio Platform offers designers a system that is highest in performance and lowest in power. The AVR UC3 microcontrollers also support the Atmel QTouch® Library for easy implementation of elegant, differentiating user interfaces for capacitive touch buttons, sliders and wheels. "Designing digital audio applications has historically been a complex, cumbersome task of finding the required firmware IP, licensing it and finally stitching it together in a working application," said Ingar Fredriksen, sr. director of AVR products, Atmel Corporation. "The Atmel Digital Audio Platform offers an 'out-of-the-box solution' to enable designers to develop today's audio applications with minimum engineering effort spent on getting the core design working." To help accelerate a designer's audio application development, evaluation kits (EVK) are also available with the Digital Audio Platform. Evaluation kits include a board with an Atmel AVR MCU and free downloadable source code. The Atmel AVR EVK1104AU/1105AU audio development kits are available in the Atmel Store at http://store.atmel.com and through Atmel-qualified distributors. Availability The Atmel Digital Audio Platform is available now. Pricing for 10,000-piece quantities: Device Pricing in (USD) 10K units AT32UC3A0512AU-ALUT $8.80 AT32UC3A0512AU-ALTRA $10.37 AT32UC3A0256AU-ALUT $7.46 AT32UC3A0128AU-ALUT $6.07 AT32UC3A1512AU-AUR $8.00 AT32UC3A1256AU-AUR $6.78 AT32UC3A3256AU-ALUT $8.74 AT32UC3B0512AU-Z2UR $7.39 AT32UC3B0128AU-A2UT $5.02 AT32UC3B0128AU-Z2UR $5.48 AT32UC3C0512CAU-ALUT $9.11 Evaluation kit pricing: EVK1105AU: $179 USD EVK1104AU: $169 USD More Information For more information about the Digital Audio Platform, please visit: www.atmel.com/audio
PDF
