Why Did Ambiq Micro Select HiFi-5 DSP IP for Next Generation MCU?

By SemiWiki

November 7, 2018

Ambiq Micro has built a family of voice processing MCU dedicated to battery powered, energy sensitive systems, supporting mobile application like wearable. The company is facing two strong challenges: support computationally intensive processing (NN-based far field) and speech recognition algorithms, while offering “ultra-low power” devices. When Ambiq claim to build ultra-low-power devices, it’s really the case: the company has developed a unique and proprietary technology, the Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™) platform (SPOT architecture uses transistors biased in the subthreshold region of operation).

These two challenges are clearly in contradiction: intensive processing built in energy-sensitive devices, this sounds like the perfect definition of energy-efficiency! According with Aaron Grassian, VP of marketing, Ambiq Micro, “Porting the HiFi 5 DSP to Ambiq Micro’s SPOT platform enables product designers, ODMs and OEMs to take the most advantage of technology from audio software leaders like DSP Concepts and Sensory by adding voice assistant integration, command and control, and conversational UIs to portable, mobile products without sacrificing quality or battery life.”

To read the full article, click here