Texas Instruments has introduced two SoCs in the PurePath Wireless audio family, aimed at delivering uncompressed, CD-quality, wireless, multi-channel and multi-point audio streaming capabilities to applications with USB ports, such as PCs, TVs, set top boxes, and game consoles. The single-chip CC8521 and CC8531 SoCs contain USB audio support for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Ubuntu and can enable streaming of up to four simultaneous audio channels from one USB audio source, according to the company. Together with a corresponding USB dongle reference design, the SoCs allow development of low-cost, small USB dongles for wireless audio applications, without code development or in-depth understanding of USB protocols, according to the company. The SoCs can be used with the free Configurator PC software tool, deliver 16bit, 44.1 to 48kHz uncompressed audio with no unwanted noise or dropouts, co-exist with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth technology and other 2.4GHz devices, have audio latency of 20ms distributed audio clock for synchronised wireless speakers, and are compatible with the company's CC2590 range extender. The ROHS-compliant audio SoCs are housed in a 6x6mm QFN-40 package.
