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First Single-Chip Bluetooth Platform Capable of CD-Quality Sound Announced by Zeevo
Device Manufacturers Plan Wireless Stereo Headphones, Headsets,
Speakers for Fall Market Based on Zeevo's New ZV4301
ARM7-based "Open" Bluetooth Audio Processor
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 20, 2004—
Zeevo, Inc., a leading provider of single-chip Bluetooth
communications solutions, announced today its third-generation, high
performance Bluetooth microcontroller solution that is the first in
the world to permit the transmission of CD-quality sound over wireless
Bluetooth links. The company's ARM7-based Bluetooth controller and
accompanying software form a complete, low-cost embedded design
solution for quality audio over Bluetooth, as well as for other
performance-sensitive Bluetooth applications.
Today's announcement means that Bluetooth -- the increasingly
available wireless standard for connecting personal use devices with
their peripherals -- can finally be applied to portable MP3 players,
MP3-capable cell phones or PDAs, and even consumer stereo systems, to
provide wireless connections to stereo headphones, headsets, or
speakers without any sacrifice in audio quality. Previous
implementations of Bluetooth -- used primarily for wireless keyboards,
mice, or mono cell phone headsets -- have not been able to attain
CD-quality level that consumers have come to expect with their wired
audio appliances, due to technical limitations.
Those limitations have now been overcome, said Zeevo co-founder
and marketing vice president Anil Aggarwal. "We recognized several
years ago that notwithstanding the rapidly expanding use of Bluetooth
for the elimination of wires between cell phones and mono headsets, or
between keyboards, mice, or PDAs and a PC, one of the most exciting
applications for Bluetooth was going to be personal audio and consumer
electronic devices -- including enhanced cell phones -- that provide
stereo audio without wires. But the challenge this brings is to
provide quality audio -- CD-quality audio, in fact -- and that is not
easy to do over Bluetooth."
According to Aggarwal, Zeevo embarked upon a multi-year research
and development program to achieve an audio-quality benchmark that it
today calls "Sound Design for Bluetooth." "We focused extensive
resources on the issues of quality, robustness in mixed wireless
environments, and user friendliness, and that led us to the unique
architecture of our new transceiver/microcontroller chip, and the
third-generation of software that makes CD-quality audio over
Bluetooth possible. Together, they represent the first available
embedded Bluetooth design platform for original device manufacturers
(ODMs) that addresses this exciting market."
Joyce Putscher, director, converging markets & technologies of
market analyst Instat/MDR agrees with Aggarwal's assessment of the
potential for this market, and Zeevo's contribution: "Thanks to the
marketing of Apple's extremely popular iPod, the image of a jammin'
consumer -- with headphones conspicuously tethered to an MP3 player in
her hand -- has become a status symbol. But when consumers catch wind
that they can listen to all their tunes, only without the wires, a new
"wireless freedom" wave in personal audio -- and a compelling
application for Bluetooth, will quickly take shape. The fact that
Zeevo has overcome the significant technical challenges with a
designer-friendly solution makes it, in essence, an enabling
technology for this new, emerging market segment."
The ZV4301 Single-chip Bluetooth Platform and ZSound(TM) Software
Zeevo's new Bluetooth audio design solution, targeted at original
device manufacturers, is made up of the new ZV4301 Bluetooth
processor, Zeevo's ZSound(TM) software, as well as reference designs
for a range of representative audio projects, and a development
environment that enables designers to achieve a very fast time to
market.
The new ZV4301 processor consists of a high-performance, 48
megahertz (MHz) ARM7 microcontroller combined with RF (radio
frequency) processing, digital signal processing, communications
processing, and algorithmic and control processing, on a single,
low-cost transceiver (transmitter-receiver) chip. Included in the
solution is Zeevo's unique ZSound software that implements the
technically-challenging, highly-optimized audio processing and Quality
of Service (QoS) algorithms. Together, they represent a complete
"sound design solution" for embedding quality audio over Bluetooth
capability into cost- and performance-competitive consumer products.
In addition to its unique capability to support CD-quality sound,
the ZV4301 is the only Bluetooth embedded microcontroller available
today that uses an industry-standard RISC processor architecture --
the popular 32-BIT ARM7TDMI 32-bit "core" -- in an open platform
configuration. This means that not only can ODMs customize a
ZV4301-based solution to their specific needs, using a
widely-understood programming environment, but also they can take
advantage of available and emerging software written for the ARM7 that
can extend or augment the performance of their products. Code written
for Zeevo's ZV4301 is binary-compatible with other members of the ARM7
family, and forward compatible with the ARM9, ARM9E, and ARM10
families.
High Performance, Low Cost, Low Power, Broad Range of Applications
Zeevo's new Bluetooth audio design solution supports CD-quality
sound, with the standard CD sampling rate of 44.1 KHz (kilohertz).
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is better than 82 dB. Audio output power
is 30 mW (milliwatts) RMS. Power consumption is extremely low,
enabling a minimum of 14 hours of play time with two AAA batteries. RF
sensitivity is better than -85 dBm, which aids in prolonging battery
life, and improves audio quality. The total bill of materials (BOM)
for both ends of a wireless stereo headphone solution -- including two
Zeevo chips -- is expected to be less than $25 in high-volume
production.
Typical audio applications for the ZV4301 include wireless stereo
headphones, stereo cell phone headsets, MP3-enabled feature phones,
audio-visual (A/V) equipment such as MP3 players, personal stereos, or
televisions, smart phones, and personal digital assistants. The ZV4301
platform, and the accompanying ZSound(TM) software, are extremely
design friendly, and offer a number of user-oriented features such as
seamless mode switching -- for example, between mono cell calls and
MP3 stereo on a converged MP3 cell phone -- or fail-soft roll-off of
audio levels as users wander outside the range of their
Bluetooth-enabled players.
The ZV4301 is also ideal for non-audio, Bluetooth 1.2-compliant
applications, such as printers, cellular peripherals, access points,
or industrial controls. The ZV4301 platform supports all required and
optional Bluetooth 1.2 features.
Price and Availability
The ZV4301 is in production, and is available today directly from
Zeevo or its sales representatives. The processor -- which includes
the ZSound software -- is priced at $8.95 in quantities of 10,000. The
evaluation and development system, as well as reference designs for
stereo headphones, mono and stereo headsets, audio line-out adapters,
and USB plug-and play adapters are additionally offered.
"The immediate availability of our new Bluetooth audio processor
platform means that ODMs can have products well into production in
time to meet their 'high season' -- the 'back-to-school' and Christmas
markets worldwide," explained Aggarwal. According to him, the ZV4301
is actively being designed into numerous consumer products that will
be broadly available at that time.
About Zeevo
Zeevo is a leading-edge semiconductor provider that designs and
markets "system-on-a-chip" (SoC) mobility wireless products for use in
portable and handheld devices ranging from cellular phones to MP3
players to personal computers. Zeevo's latest wave of products
uniquely solve the problem of high quality audio over Bluetooth --
increasingly in demand as the wireless movement floods over in to
headsets, stereo headphones, and speakers. The company pioneered the
concept of "Sound Design for Bluetooth(TM)," a quality, reliability
and convenience benchmark for Bluetooth audio that includes
high-quality audio, interference-free co-existence with 802.11
wireless, dynamic mode switching for convergence applications, and
fail-soft out-of-range behavior.
Zeevo Bluetooth platforms integrate analog, digital, and
radio-frequency (RF) circuitry, as well as memory and a programmable
ARM7 processor, on a single-chip built using highly cost-effective,
standard CMOS technology. Zeevo's chips are delivered in design- and
manufacturing-friendly packages that incorporate all RF components,
and are accompanied by Zeevo's advanced ZSound(TM) algorithms, CODEC
interfaces, and operating software. This results in quality Bluetooth
audio solutions that are distinguished by small size, low cost, low
power consumption and ease of integration by OEMs and ODMs into
market-leading end products.
Zeevo supports open, industry-standard development tools, and an
easy-to-use application program interface (API) and development
environment on its Bluetooth platforms, which enable customers to
easily customize their solutions and deliver differentiated products.
Zeevo was founded September 1999 in Silicon Valley by industry
veterans. Investors in the privately-held company include Sequoia
Capital, Raza Venture, Focus Ventures, WK Technology Fund,
Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), CDIB, Winbond, and Capital Group
Companies. Company URL is www.zeevo.com.
Editors' Note: All trademarks and registered trademarks are those
of their respective companies and organizations.
"Ipod" in the context of this release is a registered trademark of
Apple Computer, Inc., and it is used as exemplary of a class of
consumer audio products. Endorsement of Zeevo or its products by Apple
is not to be construed.
Additional background information is available at
www.roeder-johnson.com.
Contact:
Zeevo, Inc.
408-982-8000 (Customer Information)
Fax: 408-982-8008
sales@zeevo.com
or
Roeder-Johnson Corporation (Press Information)
Paul Michelson/Abigail Johnson, 650-802-1850
http://email.roeder-johnson.com
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