Based on your submissions, designers everywhere face the same challenges—producing more functionality-while maintaining an elegant design.
The latest project at Intelix, the Audisey Series Athena, exemplifies these demands. Available later this year, the Athena provides microphone preamplification, input DSP, true matrix mixing, output DSP, and amplification all in a 3U chassis. It uses a DSP/Class D amplification module, which is the heart of the project.
According to Intelix Applications and Hardware Engineer Andrew Kurth, one of the project's key challenges was providing a cost-effective way to land the module in the company's existing audio system without a large, costly pc board. To achieve this goal, the engineers designed a board that allows for two modules to be socketed above other surface-mount circuitry, minimizing real estate. The team then used a Freescale MC9S12 microprocessor to control the modules.
The following series illustrates a day in the project's production, from layout to the first preproduction Athena. Congratulations to Andrew and the rest of his team, and good luck with Athena and all your future endeavors!
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