Harman Kardon, Onkyo And Yamaha Unveil New Home Entertainment Products That Leverage TI’s Aureus™ Digital Audio Solutions

Award-Winning Audio DSPs Enable OEMs to Offer Compelling Features to Customers

DENVER (Sept. 14, 2006) -- Facilitating exceptional quality audio experiences in innovative home entertainment applications, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced that three leading audio/video (A/V) receiver manufacturers have leveraged the award-winning AureusTM generation of high-performance audio digital signal processors (DSPs) to deliver next-generation A/V receiver and digital media center applications. Harman Kardon, Onkyo and Yamaha are demonstrating their breakthrough products at CEDIA Expo this week (Sept. 14 - 17) in Denver, Colorado. (See www.ti.com/aureus1.)

“We’re thrilled that such distinguished audio manufacturers found the Aureus generation of audio DSPs to be the ideal solution for their unique home entertainment products,” said David Maples, Performance Audio business manager, TI. “Each features advanced functionalities that will be incredibly appealing to consumers, and we’re glad that Aureus DSPs could help them get to where they wanted to go.”

Harman Kardon’s DMC 250

Harman Kardon’s DMC 250 Digital Media Center breaks new ground in facilitating the enjoyment of pre-recorded audio and video entertainment, no matter the original form of the content, and no matter where it is being played back. With a high quality, full-featured progressive-scan DVD Video/Audio player with on-board bass management at its heart, the DMC 250 plays back discs with conventional DVD, DVD-Audio, CD, MP3 and JPEG content, and then goes one step further with the inclusion of front-panel card slots to play back material from Compact Flash, SD, MMC and Memory Stick solid state memory cards. Look for the Harman Kardon at Booth #644 at CEDIA Expo.


“TI’s advanced audio DSP technology allows us to offer compelling features to consumers,” said Tom McLoughlin, Harman Kardon president. “Thanks to TI’s Aureus DSP, the DMC 250 converts the audio content on a CD, as well as MP3 or JPEG images from the disc to any of the portable media formats. This capability allows consumers to convert music from a CD to a format that may be used in a wide variety of portable players, or even plugged directly into the card slots available on an increasing number of automotive sound systems, both in factory equipped ’OEM’ systems and in after-market head units.”

Onkyo’s TX-SR674

Onkyo’s TX-SR674 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver brings home theater performance and control to a new level. It offers solid amplifier power and performance through Wide Range Amplifier Technology and clear audio signals generated by Vector Linear Shaping Circuitry. In addition to fundamental A/V functionality, the TX-SR674 adds an upconverting/switching HDMI interface that passes high-definition video signals. The receiver also includes a full suite of Dolby Digital and DTS codecs for DVD Video; Audyssey2EQ automatic room correction; a Neural Surround decoder for 5.1-channel surround XM HD radio (North America only); and 7.1 multi-channel inputs for surround sound from the latest HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs.


“We have used the Aureus family of DSPs in our AV receivers because the performance and ease-of-use allowed us to create new, differentiated products quickly and easily,” said Nobuaki Okuda, executive officer of the EMS Business Division, Onkyo Corporation. “We are staying at the forefront by actively incorporating audio features and getting products to market quickly, and TI’s Aureus DSP helped us achieve that goal.”

YAMAHA RX-N600

The Yamaha RX-N600 6.1 Channel network home theater receiver is an all-new network A/V receiver that provides full connectivity as well as the ability to play back content from a personal computer or Internet radio. Additionally, it offers XM Satellite Radio “ready” capability with XM HD Surround Sound and iPod compatibility. Yamaha can be found at Booth #342 at CEDIA Expo.


“The Aureus DA7xx DSP is the platform on which we have developed our Cinema DSP audio processing engine,” said Akihiro Muramatsu, manager of Product Development Department, AV Products Division, Yamaha. “The high performance, ease of adding differentiating features and great support enabled us to continue to drive innovation in the A/V receiver market with products like the RX-N600.”

TI’s Aureus DSP product line consists of a 32/64-bit floating-point programmable DSP and a comprehensive software solution, enabling multi-channel decoding applications. With the DSPs, an optimized software solution of certified, industry-standard decoders and post-processors is provided, producing performance headroom for substantial customization through high-performance proprietary audio processing algorithms.

The Aureus processor family was recently named “Best DSP for Audio” in the 2005 In-Stat MPR (Microprocessor Report) Analysts’ Choice Awards.

Contact Information

Phillip Parker

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI)

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