Qualcomm today launched the new Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series, which bring high-performance computing capabilities together with audio technology to smart speakers, home assistants and soundbars.

The QCS400 SoCs integrate high-performance processing, the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI Engine), connectivity, and multiple audio and visual display capabilities in a single architecture.

For users of smart speakers, the QCS400 SoCs supports faster, smarter voice UI, even in noisy environments compared to Qualcomm's previous SoCs– including AI-based local automatic speech recognition, low-power, multi-keyword far-field voice pickup with beam-forming and echo cancellation, and support for cloud-based voice assistants.

The SOC is Utilizing the Dolby Atmos sound technology to deliver clarity, detail, and depth. It offers connectivity with tri-radio coexistence and low-latency audio streaming, along with power improvements.

Key features of the QCS400 SoC Series include:

• Qualcomm AI Engine, dual DSPs and up to four processor cores
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Support for Qualcomm aptX Adaptive for low-latency audio streaminge. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee coexistence.
• Up-to 32 channels of integrated audio processing, support for Dolby Atmos audio and DTS:X as well as compatibility with Qualcomm DDFA amplifier technology and aptX audio.
• Utilizing Qualcomm's far field voice, multi-channel echo cancellation, and high performance, low-power multi-keyword detection algorithms (Qualcomm Voice Assist), products built on the QCS400 SoCs can capture voice commands even during high-volume audio playback or from further afield.
• Qualcomm AI Engine for enabling AI acceleration including a quad-core CPU, Qualcomm Adreno GPU and Qualcomm Hexagon DSP with Hexagon Vector eXtentions. The Qualcomm AI Engine offers support for neural network frameworks including Tensorflow, PyTorch and ONNX, as well as the Qualcomm
• Neural Processing SDK for executing AI algorithms on device.

The QSC400 SoCs are customizable using Qualcomm Technologies’ Audio Development Kit (ADK) and the Qualcomm AI Engine can be utilized by developers through the Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (SNPE) Software Development Kit (SDK).

Qualcomm Smart Audio Platform 400

To help streamline the process for developing a smart speaker, Qualcomm also announced the Qualcomm Smart Audio Platform 400, available as a customizable development kit and example design, built around the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs.

Single-Chip Qualcomm DDFA Amplifier Solution for speakers

Qualcomm also announced CSRA6640, a single-chip amplifier solution with Qualcomm DDFA Digital Amplifier Technology. With its single-chip architecture, the CSRA6640 makes class-D amplification more commercially viable on smaller form factors and lower tier products.

The CSRA6640 can be supplied with an evaluation kit including the necessary hardware, software, development tools and information needed. The evaluation kit offers a modular architecture to support streamlined scoping of both the CSRA6640 and CSRA6620 amplifier chips with DDFA, as well as supporting the ability to simply scale up to 12 channels being evaluated simultaneously.