Jan
18
CES 2006: SigmaTel’s new SoC, Avalon and Opal
Four products of note, and glad to see Rio’s inventive spirit lives on:
- the powerful light-on-consumption STMP3600 System on Chip which they’re plugging to ODMs (Original Design Manufacturers) and is in production now
- a reference design for a slim flash-based MP3 player, built on the STMP3600, with video capabilities and support for OGG, music subscription services, as well as USB On-The-Go among other goodies
- a working prototype of the HD-based 8GB Avalon which can do Karma-like stuff (read: gapless, crossfading) among other things—we should see devices based on the Avalon design later in the year
- a mention of the upcoming Opal, which is geared towards the audiophiles with a separate subsystem (high-end DAC and amp) that can be switched on and off and is gonna cost $400-500
The DAPreview folks had a chat with Hugo Fiennes, of Rio Audio fame and current head of development of Sigmatel’s reference designs and software.
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