In support of Consumer Electronics brands that are looking to expand their product range, D2Audio Corporation announced that two whitepapers, guiding the quick and easy development of a true convergence platform for Media PC and other products are now available online. The D2Audio DAE-3 technology makes it easy to swap amplifier cards, allowing brands to quickly exchange product designs to produce more variety & differentiation. Easily exchangeable cards also provide the capability to quickly react to consumers’ desires and demands.

    The primary barrier to one box convergence in the past was the integration of a home theater class amplifier within a single enclosure and the capability of the convergence technologies to operate from a single industry standard PC power supply. Using the D2Audio Digital Amplifier Add-In Card places the main processing IC, the D2Audio Digital Audio Engine 3 on the motherboard while actual amplifier power components or high-performance pre-amplifier components are located on interchangeable D2Audio Digital Amplifier Add-In Cards.

    The Digital Amplifier Add-In Cards also allow several amplifier configurations to be supported from a single motherboard implementation, ranging from high-quality pre-amplifier outputs, up to fully amplified 5.1 & 7.1 home theater speaker outputs. The new D2Audio technologies and corresponding whitepapers specifically address those issues. A market overview of Media PC and amplified convergence platforms provides solid background and perspective in this emerging market.

    The second D2Audio whitepaper focuses on a new development tool for convergence platforms. Titled “D2Audio Digital Amplifier Add-In Card for Development of Media PC & Convergence Platforms,” it contains five sections designed to assist manufacturers, including an Overview, the Problems That Exist, How D2Audio Addresses Those Problems, Details of D2Audio Solutions, Impact of D2Audio Solutions and Market Impact.

    The whitepaper also includes a wealth of information on complete digital amplifier integration using newly developed D2Audio tools and standards including the DAE-3 PWM controller for Media PC. The advantages of this next generation development tool are that it is: a simplified solution, easier to use, more flexible, allows personalization of system and reduces development time.

The D2Audio DAE-3 digital amplifier controller makes adding any of the D2Audio Digital Amplifier Add-In Cards easy:
    - Simply plug the desired D2Audio Amplifier Add-In Card into the Media PC’s standardized connector.
    - Motherboard control functions pass seamlessly to the DAE-3 “Add-In” Card.
    - System “personality” is controlled by the “Add-In” Card. Each card type carries its own configuration data.
    - New, patent-pending D2Audio technology called “Real-time Power Supply Monitoring & Protection” constantly adjusts the available energy and current for each of its powered amplifier channels. When the bass line is cranking up for example, the system can allocate more power to that channel while sending less to others that don’t need as much. In addition, Real-time Power Supply Monitoring & Protection allows a Media PC or convergence product to run off the existing PC power supply without taxing it.
    - The D2Audio DAE-3 IC includes a High Definition Audio (HDA) interface to enable an extraordinary sound quality from the digital system audio interface. Competitors’ solutions must utilize the analog audio signal from the low-performance PC audio codec to provide the audio signal to an external amplifier, resulting in poor audio quality and other problems.