Qualcomm Launches AI-Enabled QCS400 SoC Series

Qualcomm Technologies, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) launched new QCS400 SoC series that are tipped to be designed for “smarter” audio products.

As quoted in the text release:

In these SoCs, Qualcomm Technologies brings its unique high-performance, low-power compute capabilities together with its unrivaled legacy in audio technology – to help deliver highly optimized, AI-enabled solutions that are designed for smarter audio and IoT applications.

The QCS400 SoCs are built to deliver evolved premium audio experiences throughout the home. They tightly integrate high-performance processing, the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI Engine), connectivity, and multiple advanced audio and visual display capabilities in a single, power-optimized chip architecture.

For users of smart speakers, the QCS400 SoCs support a more robust voice assistant experience with faster, smarter voice UI, even in noisy environments compared to our previous SoCs– including AI-based local automatic speech recognition, low-power, multi-keyword far-field voice pickup with beam-forming and echo cancellation, and support for cloud-based voice assistants.

“These new SoCs raise the bar on both feature integration and power performance for smart audio compared to our previous technology. This will help manufactures to more easily overcome significant technical challenges and build smarter speakers and assistants with more intuitive voice UI, connected user experiences and exceptional sound quality.” said Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “The next generation of smart audio products must be robust, highly interoperable, feature-rich, and smart, yet extremely power efficient. Qualcomm Technologies helps to meet these needs with our new SoCs, which are unique and comprehensively integrated to combine enhanced compute, AI acceleration, and low-latency audio distribution in a single chipset. These integrated solutions are designed to reduce development time of next-generation smart speakers, home assistants and soundbars.”

Utilizing the latest Dolby advancements in sound technology, Dolby Atmos® is designed to deliver impressive clarity, richness, detail, and depth. Dolby Atmos helps to bring consumers inside the story and action as the sounds of people, places, things, and music come alive. This high level of integration helps OEMs to more efficiently and economically create smarter audio products with richer sound quality, extended battery life and improved voice assistance capabilities

“The Qualcomm® QCS400 SoC series will enable our sound bar and AVR partners to bring Dolby Atmos experiences to more people,” said Mahesh Balakrishnan, vice president, Enhanced Audio Experiences, Dolby Laboratories. “Through this close working relationship, we are expanding the availability of best in class audio experiences.”

“We are pleased to work with Qualcomm Technologies to support our flagship immersive audio decoder, DTS:X, for their new line of SoCs for premium sound bars and Audio-Video Receivers and look toward to delivering additional DTS audio solutions on the QCS400 SoC series,” said Joanna Skrdlant, general manager, home and solutions licensing at Xperi.

Click here for the full release.