Ultra-Low-Power SOC Fits Internet Audio Players

Supporting MP3 and Microsoft Audio standards and designed specifically for personal digital audio players and Internet audio playback, EP7209 ARM-core-based system-on-chip (SOC) operates at 74 MHz- reportedly fast enough to equal the performance of a 100-MHz Intel Pentium-based PC- and dissipates 170 mW at 2.5V. And the chip's programmable ARM core is said to provide the processing throughput of a full-fledged DSP, so that Internet audio processing requires only half the chip's available processing power. This leaves up to 25 MIPS for use in designing product differentiation features. EP7209 SOC comes in 208-pin LQFPs and 256-ball BGAs.