1999-11-01 , S/IC-2092/54
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

The ThunderBird Avenger provides ultimate home theater, PC gaming and music solution

Philips Semiconductors today announced the ThunderBird™ Avenger PCI audio accelerator, the industry's first PC audio solution to enable 5.1 channel playback of games, music and movies. While current industry solutions limit 5.1 channel output to DVD content, the ThunderBird Avenger is the only accelerator that converts all types of media into 5.1 channel output and enhances DVD movies, creating a realistic home theater experience on the PC. The ThunderBird Avenger is also the industry's only solution that combines high-performance hardware acceleration, effective two-speaker 3D virtualization and multi-channel speaker support, making it the ideal PC gaming and music solution for implementation by add-in card and motherboard manufacturers.

"We predict that demand for MP3-type portable players will grow from a million units this year to 15 million units in 2003, driving several times that number of Internet PC players to be installed and millions of music audio selections to be downloaded. The thirst for exciting music experience is driving the market for high-quality 3D sound," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, an Arizona-based market research firm. "The ThunderBird Avenger is poised to leverage Philips Semiconductors' strength in consumer audio and provide the PC user with exceptional sound for a true multimedia experience."

"As a global leader in digital audio, Philips Semiconductors accommodates every audio application for the PC including USB audio, signal processing power amplifiers and now PCI audio," said Günther Dengel, managing director for Consumer Systems at Philips Semiconductors. "The ThunderBird Avenger is a perfect example of the technological synergy between VLSI and Philips Semiconductors. By maintaining Philips Semiconductors' commitment to highest quality and cutting-edge technology at the right price, we will continue to lead the industry by providing a breadth of solutions that our customers require."

The ThunderBird Avenger, a specialized, programmable DSP controller, delivers a compelling combination of price, features and performance. Previously only a few applications such as 5.1 encoded DVDs and 3D audio games could be enjoyed in a home theater 5.1 speaker format. Most other sources including music and most games could only be experienced in stereo. The ThunderBird Avenger is the only solution that transforms the PC into a home theater providing 5.1 speaker playback of music CDs and videos, MP3 files and MIDI files. Any game or other interactive application can now also be experienced in a deeply immersive theater like environment surrounding the player in 5.1 channels of sound effects and music. Even movies designed for 5.1 playback can be dramatically enhanced using QSound Labs' unique algorithms for the ThunderBird Avenger. The device provides a similar theater experience on 4 channel speaker systems and in addition offers 2 speaker and headphone 3D virtualization making it the most flexible solution available.

The ThunderBird Avenger also delivers best in class PC audio hardware acceleration for realistic audio, with minimal CPU utilization, which results in higher graphic frame rates and improved system benchmarks. This provides smoother, more consistent audio playback without taxing the overall system, providing benefit to both the listener and the PC OEM manufacturer.

As the only solution that hardware accelerates QSound Labs' most advanced 3D algorithms, the ThunderBird Avenger utilizes patented algorithms developed natively for speaker playback, eliminating the need for the cross-talk cancellation that burdens other solutions. The result is a wide "sweet-spot" for strong positional perception regardless of head movement and positioning, allowing listeners to enjoy a true 3D experience using only two speakers.

Through the S/PDIF Out, the ThunderBird Avenger enables users to output AC3 data from a DVD directly to an AC3 decoder. The S/PDIF stereo output capability allows users to connect to a variety of consumer audio equipment, such as a stereo receiver, minidisk or digital speakers. Additionally, the ThunderBird Avenger offers the industry's broadest 3D API support. This extensive compatibility includes DS3D™, EAX™ 1.0, EAX™ 2.0, I3D Level 2 and A3D™ 1.0.

With the highest concurrency in the industry, the ThunderBird Avenger reaches up to 96 simultaneous 3D streams for a broader range of audio sounds, which also makes the audio output sound more realistic. Additionally, this solution supports 256 DirectSound streams, up to 320 wavetable voices, MIDI music synthesis and offers an integrated game port for analog and digital joysticks.

The ThunderBird Avenger SAA7785 includes 2, 4 and 5.1 channel and S/PDIF support. Sample quantities are available now and will be shipping in quantity during Q1 2000. The ThunderBird Q3D™ SAA7780 is optimized for 2 and 4 speaker applications not requiring S/PDIF. Reference designs for both solutions are available upon request.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier based on Dataquest's 1998 report ¹). Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs. Additional information on Philips Semiconductors can be obtained by accessing its home page at  http://www.semiconductors.philips.com

¹) Based on Vendor Revenue from Shipments of Total Semiconductors Worldwide according to Dataquest's 1998 Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share report published in May, 1999.