The OPEN-6 platform will be showcased at Intrinsyc's booth at the Freescale Technology Forum, June 18-21 in San Antonio, Texas. The OPEN-6 DPP product line is based on Freescale's i.MX6 Quad Core CPU and the ARM® Cortex™-A9 architecture. It combines components and support from leading technology providers to deliver OEMs and ODMs with a licensable production package, development kit and production system on module (SOM) for portable electronic devices including tablet computers, eBook readers and industrial handheld devices, as well as automotive infotainment systems.

Part of Wolfson's successful family of power management solutions, the WM8326 is specifically designed for low power portable multimedia applications, including tablet computers, smartphones, eBook readers, media players and any product with a multimedia application processor.

Featuring four programmable DC-DC synchronous buck converters, the WM8326 delivers high performance and high efficiency across a wide range of operating conditions for longer battery life, whilst its InstantConfig™ interface and integrated one-time programmable (OTP) non-volatile memory allows start-up behaviour and configuration to be changed during product development prior to finalising the custom OTP, thus helping to reduce time-to-market for new products.

Alongside the WM8326, Wolfson's WM8958 audio hub solution helps set the benchmark for HD-quality audio. This multi-channel ultra-low power device provides 100dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) during digital-to-analogue (DAC) playback, while its integrated speaker driver and headphone driver minimise power consumption during audio playback.

The WM8958 also features an audio enhancement digital signal processor (DSP) which runs a multiband compressor, enabling significantly louder and superior sound from small speakers prevalent in portable products, while its stereo sample rate conversion and multi-channel digital mixing, combined with powerful analogue mixing, allows the WM8958 to support a huge range of different product architectures and use cases.

Dr Jess Brown, Product Line Manager for Power Management at Wolfson Microelectronics, said: "Wolfson has a strong track record of providing innovative power management and audio solutions to the world's-leading consumer electronics applications, and we are delighted that Intrinsyc has selected Wolfson technology for its latest design and production platform."

Alkarim Kassam, Vice President, Engineering at Intrinsyc, said: "To ensure OEMs can quickly bring high performance products to market, Intrinsyc selected best in class components for the OPEN-6 Design and Production Platform, including Wolfson's power management and audio solutions."

The OPEN-6 Development Kit is expected to ship in Q3 2012.

About Intrinsyc

Intrinsyc provides hardware, software, and service solutions that enable companies to build next-generation mobile and embedded products. Solutions span the development life cycle from concept to production and help device makers and technology suppliers create compelling differentiated products with faster time-to-market.

Solutions include: BSP and driver development, reference platforms, development kits, wireless modules, power and boot-time optimization, telephony software supporting 3G and 4G modems, device management software, navigation/LBS software and custom engineering services.

Intrinsyc is publicly traded (TSX: ICS) and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with operations in China, Taiwan, the United States and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please visit http://www.intrinsyc.com

Wolfson Press Contacts:

Chris King/Ellen Sinclair
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 (0) 208 408 8000
Email: wolfson@emlwildfire.com

Laura Moore
Wolfson Microelectronics plc
Tel: +44 (0)131 272 7000
Email: laura.moore@wolfsonmicro.com

Wolfson Microelectronics plc (“Wolfson” or “the Company”), a leading supplier of mixed-signal semiconductors for consumer electronic products, announces its financial results for the first quarter ended 1 April 2012.

Financial summary:

• Revenues of $30.3m (Q1 2011: $41.1m) in line with previous guidance
• Gross margin of 49.0% (Q1 2011: 47.1%)
• Underlying* operating loss of $6.4m (Q1 2011: $0.9m loss)
• Operating loss of $8.4m (Q1 2011: $3.4m loss)
• Net cash inflow from operating activities of $2.7m (Q1 2011: $24.5m outflow)
• Cash and short term deposits of $53.5m (unchanged from 2011 closing position), with no debt

Operational summary:

• Record quarterly design-in value from a combination of existing and new customers
• The three new top tier mobile phone manufacturer customers announced in the Company’s full year 2011 results are on track to add incremental revenue in 2012
• Six new products launched including a High Definition (HD) Audio System-on-a-Chip (SoC) and multiple micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microphones
• Increased design-ins for MEMS microphones as Wolfson benefits from its leading technology position and the microphone market transition to MEMS
• Increased market penetration with Fujitsu, LG, Motorola, RIM, Samsung and Sony, all launching mobile devices that featured Wolfson products inside
• Notable design-ins with new customers in the quarter included:
  • A major Chinese computer and telecommunications enterprise selecting a Wolfson audio solution for its range of mobile phones
  • A Japanese multinational corporation selecting Wolfson’s Audio Hubs for a selection of its new mobile phone platforms
  • A large consumer electronics manufacturer selecting Wolfson’s Audio Digital Signal Processor (DSP) and Audio Hub for its latest media player

Outlook:

• Q2 2012 revenue is expected to be in the range of $36m - $42m. The sequential revenue growth is expected to be driven by new and existing smartphone and tablet computer customers ramping to volume manufacturing
• Gross margin in Q2 2012 is expected to be around 48% - 49% dependant on product mix
• As previously reported, as 2012 progresses and as design-ins translate into volume production, the Company expects a step up in revenues and a return to sustainable growth and underlying profitability
• The Company remains comfortable with current market consensus for the full year

Commenting on the results, Mike Hickey, CEO of Wolfson, said: “Revenue for the first quarter of 2012 was in line with previous guidance and reflected normal seasonality. The underlying fundamentals of the business have continued to improve as consumers demand better audio from their electronics products, such as smartphones, tablet computers and gaming devices. This is driving some quite disruptive technology trends that favour Wolfson products – resulting in a record design-in performance in the first quarter."

“These favourable technology trends, strong customer adoption and with record design-ins transitioning to revenue in line with our expectations, position the Company well for a step up in revenues and a return to underlying profitability as 2012 progresses.”

*Underlying results exclude: charges for the amortisation of acquired intangible assets (Q1 2012: $0.7m; Q1 2011: $1.3m) and share-based compensation charges, including associated payroll taxes (Q1 2012: $1.3m; Q1 2011: $1.2m). The term "underlying" is not defined in IFRS and therefore may not be comparable with similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Underlying measures are not intended as a substitute for, or a superior measure to, IFRS measures. 

Enquiries:

Mike Hickey, CEO, and Mark Cubitt, CFO, will be hosting a conference call to investors and analysts at 10.00 BST today: UK Dial-in 0800 634 5205; US Dial-in 1 866 629 2704. Replay of conference call will be available from 11.30 BST today on: +44 207 769 6425 or +1 630 652 3111, Access Pin 7180194#

This document contains certain statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Wolfson’s expectations and beliefs and statements with respect to its business plan, operations and financial performance and condition and other objectives.  Such statements are forward-looking statements.  These statements typically contain words such as “intends”, “expects” “anticipates”, “estimates”, “aims”, “believes”, “assumes”, “should”, and words of similar import, which are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends.  Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements, which are based on Wolfson’s current plans, estimates, projections and assumptions.  By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances which may occur in the future and which in some cases are beyond Wolfson’s control.  There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  These factors include, but are not limited, to future revenues being lower than expected; increasing competitive pressures within the industry; general economic conditions or conditions affecting the relevant industries, both domestically and internationally, being less favourable than expected.

Edinburgh, UK, 1 May 2012 – Wolfson Microelectronics plc has today announced its next generation High Definition (HD) Audio System-on-a-Chip (SoC) with voice processor DSP, which helps smartphone manufacturers deliver clearer, more natural sounding voice calls, even in the noisiest environments.

Featuring integrated transmit path (Tx) noise reduction, echo cancellation and receive path (Rx) noise reduction, the WM5102 enables intelligible, natural sounding conversation and reduces background noise transmitted via voice calls by up to 90%, regardless of whether the caller is travelling through a busy train station, socialising in a bar or relaxing at home.

Designed specifically for smartphones, tablet computers and other portable audio devices, the high performance WM5102 features both SLIMbus and I2S interfaces, enabling OEMs to extend their audio signature across all product platforms by using this complete Audio SoC solution, delivering a truly platform agnostic system.

The WM5102 has the added benefit of providing 102dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and packs 50 MIPS of processing power using Wolfson's advanced audio DSP, offering a vastly superior high definition audio experience with minimal power consumption. The WM5102 is also up to 20% smaller than competitor parts, with up to 17 fewer components, significantly reducing the printed circuit board (PCB) footprint and overall bill of materials cost for the manufacturer.

Its fully digital mixing architecture means that the WM5102 is a highly flexible, future-proof and scalable solution, allowing concurrent use case support, ease of integration and a fast time to market. Its digital core provides a powerful combination of fixed-function signal processing blocks with a programmable DSP, including filters, fully parametric equalisers, Dynamic Range Control (DRC) and sample rate converters.

Duncan Macadie, Product Line Manager for Audio Hubs at Wolfson Microelectronics, said: "By boosting the DSP capability on our Audio Hubs to a level unavailable in the market today, and at the same time retaining ultra-low power performance, we are able to integrate transmit noise reduction to work seamlessly with other audio processing functions.

"Customers have been looking for this level of integration to significantly reduce their BOM cost. By adding a SLIMbus interface we enable customers to use this audio platform across all their products, regardless of application processor choice."

Availability

The WM5102 is available for sampling now in a W-CSP package.

Contacts

Chris King / Ellen Sinclair
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 (0) 208 408 8000
Email: wolfson@emlwildfire.com

Laura Moore
Wolfson Microelectronics plc
Tel: +44(0) 131 272 7000
Email: laura.moore@wolfsonmicro.com

Part of Wolfson's successful family of power management solutions, the WM8326 is specifically designed for low power portable multimedia applications, including tablet PCs, smartphones, eBook readers, media players and any application with a multimedia processor.

Featuring four programmable DC-DC synchronous buck converters, the WM8326 delivers high performance and high efficiency across a wide range of operating conditions, whilst its integrated one-time programmable (OTP) memory helps reduce time-to-market.

The WM8993 combines Wolfson's market-leading hub architecture and ultra-low power technology to manage all audio processing and routing in a multimedia application. By managing, converting and processing the full array of diverse audio streams, including voice, speaker, microphone, music and headphone signals, the WM8993 is able to provide the flexible audio mixing capability and high performance expected in today's portable devices.

The ZMS-40 combines 96 of ZiiLABS' StemCell media processing cores with four 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPUs, delivering stunning multi-tasking application and media processing performance. By doubling the number of StemCell Media processors compared to the previous ZMS-20, the ZMS-40 delivers twice the peak media performance, while running the larger array at lower clock speeds to achieve the same performance leads to greater energy efficiency and a reduction in power consumption of up to 50 percent.

Dr Jess Brown, Product Line Manager for Power Management at Wolfson Microelectronics, said: "We are delighted that ZiiLABS has once again selected Wolfson technology for its latest ZMS-40 media processor reference design and are excited by the whole range of Jaguar Tablet Android Reference Platforms.

"Wolfson has a strong reputation in providing industry-leading audio and power management solutions for consumer electronics applications. The WM8326 and WM8993 enable system designers to incorporate an impressive range of features into their products, whilst improving efficiency and performance."

Tim Lewis, Director Partner Relations, ZiiLABS, said: "Wolfson continue to provide world-leading power management and audio solutions that, combined with its global supply chain and design-in support, make it an ideal partner for our JAGUAR reference tablets."

Wolfson will be demonstrating the ZiiLABS Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) tablets and associated design-kits at MWC Barcelona between 27th February and 1st March 2012.

About ZiiLABS

ZiiLABS is a leader in media-rich application processors, hardware platforms and advanced middleware. Its products enable OEMs, ODMs, System Integrators and Software Developers to deliver industry-leading devices across a broad range of consumer electronics and embedded markets. Originally founded in 1994 as 3DLABS, the company re-branded and joined with the Personal Digital Entertainment group of Creative Technology to form ZiiLABS in January 2009. ZiiLABS has invested US$1 billion and 10,000 man-years in media processing solutions and has offices in the UK, China, USA and Singapore.

For more information on ZiiLABS, please visit http://www.ziilabs.com/

Press Contact:

Chris King/Ellen Sinclair
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 (0) 208 408 8000
Email: wolfson@emlwildfire.com

Edinburgh, UK, 2 February 2012 – Wolfson Microelectronics plc has today announced the WM1811, its loudest, smallest Audio Hub yet. This new ultra-low power stereo audio hub is designed to deliver extended battery life and enriched audio quality. The WM1811 is targeted at MP3 music and video playback in smartphones and other portable devices rich in multimedia features, such as tablet PCs, eBook readers and media players.

Delivering 100dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) during DAC playback, the WM1811 provides loud and clear voice calls as well as rich audio playback for music and video. Utilising the optimised power consumption and performance of the WM1811's 2W stereo Class D speaker and high output power headphone drivers, allows manufacturers to create fantastic-sounding high definition audio user experiences with long battery life. With its small size and fully integrated design, the WM1811 requires fewer components than the discrete solution, offering a smaller PCB footprint and a reduced bill of materials cost for the manufacturer.

The WM1811's integrated stereo Class D speaker driver and Class W headphone driver minimises power consumption and maximises volume during audio playback. Its stereo full-duplex asynchronous sample rate conversion and multi-channel digital mixing, combined with powerful analogue mixing, allow the WM1811 to support a huge range of different architectures and use cases.

Its integrated Wolfson ReTune™ programmable parametric equaliser provides speaker compensation in the digital playback paths. In addition, the dynamic range controller can be used in record or playback paths for maintaining a constant signal level, maximising loudness and protecting speakers against overloading and clipping.

Duncan Macadie, Product Line Manager for Audio Hubs at Wolfson Microelectronics, said: "The WM1811 provides outstanding audio performance and ultra-low power consumption, combined with a low bill of materials, enabling our customers to deliver enhanced user experiences in current and future smartphone, tablet and other hand held platforms. Designing with the WM1811 allows consumer electronics manufacturers to use audio performance and battery life to differentiate their end product in the marketplace."

Availability

The WM1811 is available for sampling now in an 80-ball W-CSP package.

Contact:

Chris King
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 (0) 208 408 8000
Email: wolfson@emlwildfire.com

Registration:

Please register for the audio webcast and via this link (Opens in new window).

Enquiries:

Claire Norbury
Luther Pendragon
+44 (0)20 7618 9100

Freescale's i.MX535 processor incorporates a 1GHz ARM Cortex™ A8 core, 1080p HD video decode and 720p video encode, two dedicated graphics cores, multiple display and connectivity options and, with the help of Wolfson's WM8325-00C, is optimised for both high performance and low power consumption to meet the demands of applications such as tablet PCs which require long battery life.

The WM8325-00C power management subsystem is designed to operate as a system PMIC supporting ARM-based processors, as well as the majority of application and mobile processors at the heart of a wide range of low-power consumer multimedia applications. This highly flexible single-chip solution helps reduce time-to-market as changing application needs can be easily accommodated in the One-Time Programmable (OTP) memory. In this case, the OTP has been specifically tailored to Freescale's power management requirements for its i.MX535 processor.

Commenting on this announcement, Dr Jess Brown, Product Line Manager for Power Management at Wolfson Microelectronics, said: "As one of the highest current monolithic PMICs on the market, the WM8325 offers a fantastic combination of world-leading power management capability, flexibility, simplified design effort and a reduced time-to-market, and we're delighted that Freescale has selected it for its latest processor on its reference design platform for the tablet PC market."

Contact:

Chris King / Ellen Sinclair
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 (0) 208 408 8000
Email: wolfson@emlwildfire.com

Laura Moore
Wolfson Microelectronics plc
Tel: +44 (0) 131 272 7137
Email: laura.moore@wolfsonmicro.com

Read the full article at EDN (Link opens in a new window)

Sequential revenue growth with improving longer term outlook

Financial summary:

• Revenues up 5% sequentially to $40.4m (Q2 2011: $38.6m), down 14% year-on-year (Q3 2010: $47.1m)
• Gross margin, before exceptional inventory charge, improved sequentially to 49.7% (Q2 2011: 47.4%)
• Underlying* operating loss improved sequentially to $0.7m (Q2 2011: $2.9m loss)
• Underlying* diluted loss per share improved sequentially to 0.5 cents (Q2 2011: 1.8 cents loss)
• Exceptional charge of $7.0m: $3.5m restructuring as previously indicated and $3.5m inventory write-down following subsequent obsolescence of products by customers (Q2 2011: $1.8m pension curtailment gain)
• Operating loss of $10.0m, after exceptional charges (Q2 2011: $3.5m loss)
• Diluted loss per share of 6.4 cents (Q2 2011: 2.2 cents loss)

Operational summary:

• Strong sales growth in mobile Audio Hubs, which grew 24% sequentially and 34% year-on-year
• When compared to Q3 2010, sales to mobile phone applications grew by 9%, tablet/PCs grew by 95% and mobile gaming grew by 21%. This strong growth was offset by reduced sales in most other application areas due to this year’s much weaker end consumer demand environment
• In the first nine months to September, despite challenging end markets, revenues have grown by 8% over the comparable period last year, driven by:
  • Strong year-on-year sales growth in mobile Audio Hubs, which increased by over 100%
  • Strong year-on-year sales growth in mobile phones and tablet/PCs, which grew by 53% and 215% respectively
• Strong design-in performance maintained with 79 new design-ins in Q3 2011 giving a total of 272 for the nine months to end of September. This is mostly being driven by the adoption of Audio Hubs and is increasing share with existing customers (including design-ins this quarter for two new high volume 2012 smartphones) and winning share in new customers
• Product development performance was maintained in Q3 2011 with the launch of eight new products (19 new products to end of September)
• Started shipping micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) based silicon microphones in volume to a major mobile phone manufacturer
• Notable new Wolfson Audio Hub, DSP and subsystem product adoptions in Q3 2011 include selection by:
  • An existing high volume Tier 1 customer for its new 2012 smartphone platform
  • An existing Tier 1 customer for its next generation high volume 2012 smartphone platform (announced at Interim results in July)
  • Samsung for Droid and Epii handsets, a new Galaxy S2 model, the Galaxy R smartphone and various Samsung Galaxy tablets
  • LG for its Optimus range of mobile phones including the Sol, Q2, EX, Net and LTE handsets, and the LG V909 tablet
  • Sony Tablet S and Lenovo LePad tablet PCs
  • Fujitsu and Toshiba for new Japanese smartphones
• Power management subsystem selected for the new Sony eBook reader
• Headset reference solution and myZoneTM ambient noise cancellation (ANC) technology have been selected by Best Buy for its latest noise cancellation headphone designs, which are sold under its Rocketfish brand
• The Company acquired Dynamic Hearing PTY Ltd (“Dynamic Hearing”), an enhanced speech intelligibility and voice communications company, for $4.5m. This acquisition provides Wolfson with a complete platform-agnostic turnkey transmit and receive noise reduction solution

Outlook:

Near Term

• The Company expects revenues for Q4 2011 to be in the range of $35m to $40m
• Q4 2011 gross margin is expected to be around 50% and 2011 full-year gross margin is now expected to be around 48.5% (pre the Q3 exceptional inventory charge of $3.5m)

Looking further ahead

Whilst weak consumer demand, along with some customer product delays, have impacted the Company’s 2011 revenue growth expectations and prevented a return to full-year profitability, and although the Company expects headwinds for another couple of quarters until significant design-ins translate to revenue, the underlying fundamentals of the business continue to improve. This improvement is being driven by an accelerating technology trend in consumer electronics devices to “off board” audio from central processors to standalone audio devices where Wolfson Audio Hub products have a leadership position.

This fundamental technology transition is creating a large addressable market opportunity for Audio Hubs where Wolfson is strongly positioned to capture good share. This changeover is increasingly evident in smartphones and tablet PCs, and is also being adopted across other consumer electronics product applications. The Company is playing a leading part and already benefitting from this end-product architecture evolution.

This, plus high exposure to fast growing product applications, such as smartphones, tablet PCs, eBook readers and gaming, and with secured design-ins working their way through to revenue in the second half of 2012, positions the Company well to improve sales growth and profitability as its target markets continue to develop and overall consumer demand recovers.

Commenting on the results, Mike Hickey, CEO of Wolfson, said: “Against a backdrop of deteriorating macro-economic conditions and low consumer confidence, we were able to grow our third quarter revenue sequentially with incremental revenues from 2010 designs-ins offsetting general market reductions. The sharp reductions in customers’ near-term forecasts seen during the summer months have not been repeated, and order intake has stabilised, albeit at somewhat lower levels than previously anticipated. “Whilst visibility for Q4 2011 and into 2012 remains limited, our strong design-in performance continues, including the addition of two new high volume next generation smartphone design-ins this quarter, increasing our share with existing customers. Coupled with high exposure to still growing markets such as smartphones, tablet PCs, eBook readers and gaming, the Company is well positioned to weather the current challenging environment and improve sales growth and profitability as our target market continues to grow and once consumer spending picks up.”

*Underlying results exclude: charges for the amortisation of acquired intangible assets (Q3 2011: $1.3m; Q2 2011: $1.3m; Q3 2010: $1.3m) and share-based compensation charges (Q3 2011: $1.0m; Q2 2011: $1.1m; Q3 2010: $1.3m). Also in Q3 2011, exceptional charges of $7.0m are excluded (Q2 2011: $1.8m pension curtailment gain; Q3 2010: $nil). For loss per share purposes, this is calculated by adding back to net loss such items net of the estimated tax impact and dividing by the number of dilutive shares in issue. The term "underlying" is not defined in IFRS and therefore may not be comparable with similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Underlying measures are not intended as a substitute for, or a superior measure to, IFRS measures.

Enquiries:

Wolfson Microelectronics

Mike Hickey, Chief Executive Officer 0131 272 7000
Mark Cubitt, Chief Financial Officer

Luther Pendragon

Harry Chathli, Neil Thapar 020 7618 9100

Conference Call

Mike Hickey, CEO, and Mark Cubitt, CFO, will be hosting a conference call to investors and analysts at 0900 GMT today. There is a dial-in facility: UK freephone: 0800 634 5205; US freephone: 1 866 629 2704; International: +44 (0)208 817 9301. Replay of the conference call will be available from 10:00 GMT today: UK: +44 (0)207 769 6425, US: + 1 630 652 3111Passcode: 5838583# An audio webcast of the call can be heard LIVE from 0900 GMT today via: http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/investor (Link opens in new window)

This document contains certain statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Wolfson’s expectations and beliefs and statements with respect to its business plan, operations and financial performance and condition and other objectives. Such statements are forward-looking statements. These statements typically contain words such as “intends”, “expects” “anticipates”, “estimates”, “aims”, “believes”, “assumes”, “should”, and words of similar import, which are predictions of or indicate future events and future trends. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements, which are based on Wolfson’s current plans, estimates, projections and assumptions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances which may occur in the future and which in some cases are beyond Wolfson’s control. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited, to future revenues being lower than expected; increasing competitive pressures within the industry; general economic conditions or conditions affecting the relevant industries, both domestically and internationally, being less favourable than expected.

Device Highlights:
- Advanced power management features extend battery life by 30 minutes
- 5x better audio performance
- 45% reduction in PCB size
- 56% reduction audio PCB BOM
- 100% seamless support for any headphone
- No audible pops & clicks

Both devices have integrated stereo speaker drivers capable of delivering 2W output per channel into 4Ω with the highest efficiency available in PC audio devices.

The WM8861 and WM8862 require fewer external components to achieve this high level of audio quality and can on average reduce the external component count, and the resulting PCB board space requirements by 45%. In addition, this enables a reduction of audio PCB BOM on a popular laptop by as much as 56%.

Wolfson SilentSwitch™ technology ensures no pops and clicks are generated by the output at any time, ensuring maximum audio performance while still being able to quickly and quietly power down unused paths. Both devices also feature speaker frequency response improvement and Dynamic Range Controllers implemented in hardware, which can deliver a louder sound from small speakers without burdening the host processor with audio signal processing tasks. This delivers HiFi quality audio into laptop PCs and dramatically enhances the end user experience – perfect for music lovers, musicians, DJs and producers alike.

There are many different types of headsets available to consumers and there are a number of ways they are connected to the jack plug used. The WM8861 and WM8862 also incorporate an advanced headset detect feature which actively monitors when a headset is connected, what type of connection it uses, and changes the input connections to match the headset. This ensures complete compatibility with the ever-diverging headset and headphone connectors on the market today.

The WM8861 has an added Master I2S audio and I2C/SPI control interface which enables control of downstream audio devices, such as high fidelity DACs, digital input amplifiers or audio DSPs, such as Wolfson's WM0010 DSP. This enables the offloading of audio signal processing, enabling even lower power consumption and longer battery life.

Nigel Burgess, Product Line Manager, Wolfson Microelectronics comments: "Consumers are constantly demanding higher quality audio and the WM8861 and WM8862 offers a route to achieving a differentiated audio experience that is currently not available in the market today. Wolfson's IP is ahead of the curve in terms of performance and power consumption and these new devices from Wolfson help OEMs bring to market PCs with fantastic multimedia capabilities."

Availability

The WM8861 and WM8862 are available for sampling in December.

Contacts:

Chris King / Ellen Sinclair
EML Wildfire
Tel: +44 (0) 208 408 8000
Email: wolfson@emlwildfire.com

Derek Milne
Wolfson Microelectronics plc
Tel: +44 (0) 131 272 7059
Email: Derek.Milne@wolfsonmicro.com