Broadcom and SoftMax Announce Collaboration on Noise Reduction Technology for Broadcom's Newest Bluetooth® Headset Solution
SoftMax 1VOICE Noise Cancellation Software Enables Greater Audio Quality for Bluetooth Headsets Based on Broadcom's BCM2047 Platform
IRVINE, Calif., June 4 / / - Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, and SoftMax Inc., a leading developer of noise cancellation software for audio devices, today announced that the SoftMax 1VOICE Noise Reduction technology is now available on the Broadcom(R) BCM2047 Bluetooth(R) headset platform. Manufacturers can now enhance their headset designs based on Broadcom solutions with the industry's best dual microphone noise cancellation and echo suppression technologies. Featuring an ARM(R) processor and digital signal processing (DSP) technology, the flexible BCM2047 architecture enables third party developers, such as SoftMax, to quickly port software to the platform. Such software can be used by headset manufacturers to offer the latest features and enhanced performance.
The increasing adoption of Bluetooth technology in mobile phones is driving unprecedented demand for high quality Bluetooth headsets. To capitalize upon this growth, OEMs are looking for ways to differentiate their Bluetooth headsets with better audio quality. By adding SoftMax's signal separation technology to Broadcom's highly-integrated BCM2047 architecture, manufacturers can design sleek form factors that perform well in almost any noise environment.
Compared to competing silicon products that use proprietary processor technologies and require custom software development, Broadcom's new ARM-based BCM2047 provides a familiar environment to speed software development. This rapid development provides Broadcom's customers with a variety of ways to differentiate their products without adding significant cost and development time to their design cycles.
"We are very excited to offer our 1VOICE Noise Reduction technology on the Broadcom BCM2047 platform," said Sheldon Gilbert, Vice President of Business Development for SoftMax, Inc. "By leveraging Broadcom's ARM-based development approach, we quickly ported our software to its new Bluetooth headset solution, allowing OEMs to deliver products with superior performance right away. Also, the efficient ARM-based architecture was an excellent match for our technology, resulting in world class noise reduction performance in a very small MIPS(R) and battery-power footprint."
"SoftMax's 1VOICE Dual Mic Noise Reduction technology will complement the high-quality features of our new Bluetooth headset solutions to provide an exceptional audio experience for wireless headset users," said Seow Lim, Director of Marketing for Broadcom's Bluetooth line of business. "Our BCM2047 design approach enables software partners, such as SoftMax, to add valuable features and accelerate time-to-market for our headset customers."
Technical Information
The new Broadcom BCM2047 single-chip Bluetooth headset solution provides an advanced silicon and software platform that significantly improves the user experience of wireless mono and stereo headsets. Based on Broadcom's field-proven Bluetooth technology, the audio platform supports Bluetooth Version 2.0 with enhanced data rate (EDR) technology and is upgradeable to Bluetooth Version 2.1. Integrating the world's most mature and highest performance radio technology, the BCM2047 features a power-efficient architecture that extends talk and standby time while enabling the use of a smaller battery.
SoftMax's 1VOICE Noise Reduction technology is based on a proprietary signal separation platform that uses sophisticated adaptive statistical techniques to separate voice signals from any background noise. This is achieved by extracting the individual components from the mixture of audio captured by the user's device making it very effective against all types of noise whether stationary, such as road noise, or non-stationary, such as music or other human voices. SoftMax technology provides superior noise reduction performance in one of the smallest MIPS and memory footprints. In addition to noise reduction, the SoftMax 1VOICE solution on the BCM2047 provides a complete audio enhancement package including echo cancellation and automatic volume control.
About SoftMax
SoftMax, Inc. is the market leader of 2-microphone noise reduction solutions for Bluetooth headsets, mobile phones and other electronic audio platforms. SoftMax is a privately held company headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://softmax.com/.
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Our products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. Broadcom provides the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything.
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2006 revenue of $3.67 billion, and holds over 2,000 U.S. and 800 foreign patents, more than 6,000 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video and data.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at http://www.broadcom.com/.
Broadcom(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. ARM(R) is a trademark of ARM Limited. Bluetooth(R) is a trademark of the Bluetooth SIG. MIPS(R) is a trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Source: Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Mobile & Wireless
CONTACT: Technical, Seow Lim, Director of Marketing of Bluetooth Products, +1-408-501-8440, seowl@broadcom.com, of Broadcom
Web site: http://www.broadcom.com/
http://softmax.com/
