Analog is Everywhere

News Release from: NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors)
Subject: SAA7893HL
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 12 March 2002

Single-chip solution for Super Audio CD

Philips has developed a single-chip solution which brings Super Audio CD (SACD) to the high-volume consumer market.

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Philips has developed a single-chip solution which brings Super Audio CD (SACD) to the high-volume consumer market. The solution is a hardware and software combination and is very adaptable, facilitating its design-in by manufacturers of DVD-players. The SAA7893HL chip will allow DVD makers to easily integrate SACD into their DVD-video players at costs which will open the large volume market, enabling consumers to experience sound quality superior to that of a CD from the comfort of their living room.

Codeveloped by Philips, the SACD format represents the next level of audio reproduction - clearly superior to the CD.

The SACD uses the latest DSD (Direct Stream Digital) technology to deliver superior sound reproduction to the listener, with the ability to render all the nuances of a live concert performance.

This technology closely reproduces original analogue waveforms, generating a clearer, more natural sound that is designed to capture the emotional impact of the source material with outstanding realism.

Using a sampling frequency of 2.8MHz, 64 times higher than that of CD, Super Audio CD is capable of producing a truly pure, natural sound.

"As a result of breakthroughs in the field of audio coding, Super Audio CD is now accepted as the highest possible audio quality, both in the field of stereo as well as in multi-channel", commented Jeroen Keunen, regional market segment manager of consumer and multimedia with Philips in Asia Pacific.

"Large volume player manufacturers have announced that they are developing and shipping SACD DVD-video players.

With the SAA7893HL, SACD will become a cost-efficient 'must-have' feature in the DVD-video market and will bring SACD possibilities to the end-consumer".

"Philips' SACD solutions help us to bring the highest quality music to our demanding listeners", commented Katsumi Shimoguchi, general manager of Marantz.

"SACD is based on the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) technology which directly records and reproduces 1bit signals, introducing less distortion compared with traditional PCM technology.

The Super Audio CD format offers an unmatched capability to reproduce the original source with state-of-the-art fidelity".

Inside the SAA7893, a special high-quality multi-channel bass management system incorporating volume control and a delay function offers home theatre support.

The SAA7893 can support many different DVD-platforms because of the integrated multiple loader and host interfaces.

It enables DVD-player manufacturers to introduce players that can support six-channel SACD and DVD playback.

The six-channel DAC outputs of the DVD host are routed via the chip, which provides a DAC, switch function between SACD mode and DVD mode.

Offering a complete solution, including Annex J+ level SW API, the SAA7893 also incorporates a full SACD software stack.

All compute-intensive operations required for SACD playback and post-processing are executed by the SAA7893HL such that a minimum CPU load remains for the DVD host.

All hardware and software interfaces are optimised for easy design-in into various DVD systems.

Samples are available now and volume production commences in Q1 2002.

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