VoIP--Coming in Loud and Clear

By Michael Foley
iApplianceWeb
(05/28/01, 12:30:53 PM EDT)

STMicroelectronics is aiding voice communications over the Internet with its latest audio processor. The STV0397 is a multi-channel voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) processor for cable network-based telephony products. The STV0397 can be used to power a variety of VoIP systems, including integrated access devices and telephony gateways.

Powered by the VP7 DSP core and the Veracity VoIP firmware from Netergy Microelectronics, the STV0397 enables OEMs to offer PacketCable compliant voice solutions for the cable market. The STV0397 functions as an audio compression coprocessor and includes software for the ITU G.711, G.722, G.723.1, G.726, G.728, G.729A/B, and G.729E algorithms, as well as acoustic echo cancellation, DTMF detection and generation, and audio mixing. The STV0397 can support up to 16 channels of complex codecs.

The STV0397 incorporates Netergy Microelectronics' VP7 digital signal processing core. The VP7's single-instruction multiple-data path architecture can perform several parallel operations consisting of four memory reads and four memory writes, four multiply-accumulates, four arithmetic logic operations, 8 address pointer updates, and a 16-bit microcontroller operation in any given cycle. In addition, the STV0397 includes a memory controller, 8KBytes of audio frame buffers, a time division multiplexed (TDM) interface for audio streams, and a standard PCI port to interface with a host controller.

The STV0397 will be available from STMicroelectronics starting in the third quarter of 2001 and is offered in a 292 ball plastic BGA package.