One of the world’s top three mobile phone manufacturers has chosen austriamicrosystems AG (Graz, Austria) to supply its AS3521 mobile entertainment IC as the basis for the audio section of a new cell phone model with music and audio features. The AS3521 is a completely self-contained digital audio system-on-a-chip, fitting into the baseband architecture of various GSM/EDGE and CDMA chipsets.
By using a serial communication interface, the phone’s baseband processor issues commands to the mobile music chip, where all digital and analog music processing is handled locally. The baseband processor is free to execute the communication software stack and the user interface, while the AS3521 plays MP3 and AAC-encoded songs out of the mobile phone’s music memory. When the cell phone is connected to a PC via its USB 2.0 full-speed interface, the phone identifies itself as an external storage device in true plug-and-play fashion.
