Wolfson codec dramatically increases playback times

FAMED FOR its chips' inclusion in the original Ipod, audio specialist, Wolfson, has just launched a new Codec – the WM8903.

If a 400 per cent increase in battery life for smartphones isn't dramatic , what is?

The WM8903 gets there by using the company's new Smartdac technology which it claims provides a power consumption of just 4.4 mW.

Better still the whole DAC is programmable so that handset designers can pick power-saving vs performance profiles.

Also buried away in the 8903 is Wolfson's new Class W amplifier technology. It claims this will dispense with the need for a large DC blocking headphone capacitor, thus saving on PC space and bill of materials.

Indeed, Wolfson claims the WM8903 in general consumes less circuit board real estate and has a low profile thanks to its 5x5x0.55 mm QFN package.

The INQ was trying to pump Wolfson's Peter Frith for information on whether his company's chips feature on major handset reference designs.

He admitted they had once featured on a CSR reference design. Instead, Frith suggested that Wolfson's chips will feature heavily in handset designs which utilise the latest Nvidia applications processors.

Additionally, he hinted that the WM903 works well with the latest generation of digital microphones which should also save handset real estate.

The bottom line is that Wolfson claims audio playback times from multimedia handsets will rise from a typical 12-24 hours to more like 120 hours.

This is especially important in the mobile phone world where consumers hate it if the handset battery suddenly dies during a phone call because the MP3 player has eaten all the power.

Consequently, Wolfson is predicting that by 2011 an impressive 88 per cent of all mobile phones will boast a multimedia capability – up from 31 per cent in 2005.

Using a variation of the old industry adage, Frith quipped that "no-one has ever got fired for designing Wolfson chips into a handset." µ