San Diego-headquartered semiconductor player Qualcomm today released a new flash-programmable Bluetooth Audio System-on-Chip (SoC), which it claims cuts power consumption by up to 50 percent.
The new SoC developed by the company’s subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies is designed to help manufactures develop the next generation of wireless wearable audio devices. It is part of Qualcomm’s QCC5100 series.
The QCC3026 is targeting phone manufacturers, who are increasingly eyeing removal of the standard headphone jack from their designs, meaning consumers need wireless headphones or speaker docs.
“With this new design, phone OEMs can provide quality sounding earbuds at a cost point that allows them to package them in the box with, or alongside, their latest smartphones providing an overall more compelling offer to consumers,” the company said.
Power Consumption
A key aspect highlighted by Qualcomm is the cited minimum power consumption. Balanced power disruption controlled by the SoC could see a reduction in power usage by 50 percent, when measured against previous generational flash devices.
In a released statement Anthony Murray GM of Voice & Music at Qualcomm Technologies said that: “This breakthrough single-chip solution is designed to dramatically reduce power consumption and offers enhanced processing capabilities to help our customers build new life-enhancing, feature-rich devices.”
“This will open new possibilities for extended-use hearable applications including virtual assistants, augmented hearing and enhanced listening,” he added.
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Audio device manufactures are constantly trying to design smaller less intrusive devices to be used for work and personal endeavours. The designs’ and customer consumption habits have in recent years moved into the realm of wireless devices.
Battery power is a key concern when using these types of devices, but the QCC5100 series promises to provide remediation for much of these issues.
Mr Murray commented that: “Putting so much technology into such a small form factor is a big technology challenge and with this differentiated new offering we are helping even non-traditional Bluetooth wireless headphone customers.”
“We can now help to pack tremendous functionality into small, wireless hearable devices,” he stated in the announcement.
Qualcomm could also be about to lead the way in 5G technology as reported earlier by Computer Business Review.
