Automotive Digital Audio Processing Using Single Chip Microcontroller

Automotive Amplifier systems are used to process car audio coming from Infotainment system and sending multichannel audio output to the multiple speakers along with capturing multiple audio input channels coming within and outside the car. The digital audio goes in to series of signal processing algorithms (e.g. Surround conversion, Equalizer, Active Noise Cancellation, Electronic Sound Synthesis, Mixer etc). The prior solution in these systems for digital processing consists of DSP (supporting high compute), ARM (Microcontroller) and external DRAM memory (Due to lack of smaller on-chip memory) increasing overall system cost. The paper proposes integrated solution using TI’s AM273xMCU, which consists Host ARM R5F Cores, High performance C66x DSP, high density internal SRAM and Multi-channel Audio peripherals. The paper also proposes innovative algorithm for BiQuad filtering on C66x DSP using optimal batch processing and efficient filter co-efficient layout. The resulting overall solution is integrated single chip microcontroller enabling 4x to 5x audio performance improvement over traditional Biquad–processing on C66x DSP resulting overall lower system cost using single chip microcontroller.