“The leading semiconductor component distributor dedicated to the Asia-Pacific market, Dalian General Holdings, announced that its subsidiary Quanding has launched a smart audio reference design based on Qualcomm’s QCS400 series SoC.

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On July 13, 2021, Dalian General Holdings, a leading semiconductor component distributor dedicated to the Asia-Pacific market, announced that its subsidiary Quanding has launched a smart audio reference design based on Qualcomm’s QCS400 series SoC.

This series is specially designed by Qualcomm for the field of artificial intelligence, for smarter speakers, sound bars, furniture assistants and audio-visual reception equipment. This SoC series integrates high-performance, low-power computing functions and excellent audio technologies, including integrated computing, mesh Wi-Fi, Bluetooth low energy mesh networking, voice UI and audio technology, and supports Duo Compared with panoramic sound, DTS:X and many safety features, and adopts dual DSP to optimize sound quality. The move is aimed at highly optimized and AI-enabled solutions for smarter audio and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Figure 1 – Qualcomm QCS400 Series SoC

The family currently has QCS403, QCS404, QCS405, QCS407. Among them, QCS403/404 are equipped with dual-core/quad-core CPU respectively, both of which support Bluetooth 5.1; QCS405 contains quad-core CPU and supports Qualcomm AI engine (or platform), which can use quad-core CPU, GPU and dual DSP to complete AI inference ; QCS407 provides more audio channels for AV receivers on the version of QCS405.

Based on the QCS400 series SoC, Dalian University Quanding combined with PM405 power management IC and WiFi front-end IC – WCN3980 constitute a smart audio reference design solution with high cost performance.

Figure 2 – The framework of the 2.1-channel smart audio reference design based on Qualcomm QCS400 SoC

Core technical advantages:

• The QCS400 family series is highly integrated and provides cost-effectiveness;
• The QCS400 family series provides overall power efficiency;
• QCS400 series pin to pin, there are high, medium and low series, suitable for all grades of the market.

Figure 3 – The development board and physical map of the 2.1-channel smart audio reference design scheme based on Qualcomm QCS400 SoC

Program Specifications:

• Audio input AUX X1 RCA X1 SPDIF-RCA X1 SPDIF-Optical X1 (optional) Bluetooth5.0 X1;
• IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n/ac X1;
• Dual Channel 6~10W output;
• One Channel Subwoofer output;
• 4 groups of DMIC interface;
• 1 set of I2S interface, up to 8 data lines;
• 1 set of USB2.0;
• 2 groups of UART;
• Line reserved USB2.0 X1 USB3.0 X1 SDIO X1 HDMI X1 ARC X1.