Friday, 12 January 2007

ST, Open Interface in Bluetooth Audio Products Deal

STMicroelectronics, a provider of design and production of semiconductors for consumer applications, and Open Interface North America, a provider of Bluetooth wireless applications, has revealed plans to collaborate on Bluetooth audio solutions. Specifically, STMicroelectronics will embed Open Interface's SOUNDabout and BLUEmagic technologies in Bluetooth-based integrated audio products in its Sound Terminal family.

The Sound Terminal family is based on a series of high audio quality, fully-digital signal processing and power amplifier ICs (integrated circuits), with stereo power outputs from 100-milliwatts to 80-watts per channel. Their all-digital audio stream is ideal for integration with wireless interfaces, enabling manufacturers to small form-factor sound systems for portable applications, the companies stated.

SOUNDabout is a software application development platform and suite of reference designs enabling the easy implementation of wireless audio in consumer devices. BLUEmagic is an embedded Bluetooth protocol stack that is modular and portable, with an architecture good for embedded devices, the companies added.

Greg Burns, Open Interface North America CTO, added, "ST recognises that its OEM and ODM customers can benefit from OI's easy-to-implement, yet high-quality audio for their devices. It was after evaluation that they selected SOUNDabout and BLUEmagic because our solutions are platform independent and fully Bluetooth 2.0+ Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) compliant, are tested for interoperability, provide good sound, and are optimised for low power consumption in battery operated devices."