For those unfamiliar with the company Wolfson, they are a company that designs audio chips which can be found in high-end handsets, such as the Samsung Galaxy S II. Now they have announced that they are going to release an audio system-on-chip called the WM5100.
Unlike their previous audio chips, the WM5100 incorporates a multi-channel audio hub, two way noise cancellation, and a multi-core programmable digital signal processor, all of which is baked into a single package.
The reason why Wolfson is now taking the SoC route is so that they can help device manufacturers lower power consumption and also cause heat reductions along with less time spent on developing code to create ‘audio signatures’. Naturally this means that a particular audio signature has to be created by Wolfson, which they say they have plans to do so in order to distinguish their handsets. To accomplish this, Wolfson will be providing both the development software and the toolchain so they can get to grips with the WM5100.
Hopefully this translates into better call qualities not just over networks, but also VoIP software as well, such as Skype, Viber and Google Talk. At the moment the company is sampling the WM5100 to device manufacturers, and hopes that they will be integrated into handsets within the next nine months.
Filed in . Read more about Noise Cancellation, Samsung Galaxy S Ii and SoC.