A codec is not a speaker on a chip

I got a press release from Conexant*. The title is: CONEXANT LAUNCHES WORLD’S FIRST FAMILY OF SPEAKERS-ON-A-CHIP SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS. Now I am already turned off since I don’t people yelling at me and what are all capital letter headlines other than yelling? But I was fascinated by the speakers-on-a-chip technology. My first thought was hearing aids. I knew there were MEMS microphones so I figured that Conexant had developed some type of MEMS speaker meant for hearing aids. My mind was racing. They even had an acronym for it: SPoC. Wow, speakers on a chip! This is great. I have to learn more. Did they use electrostatic technology? I knew that Analog Devices and Freescale had done a lot of chips with spiral inductors on them so I wondered if Conexant had managed to make electrodynamic speakers on a chip. I read the line: “The CX20562 integrates key speaker technology and processing functionality into a single device, and is targeted at products that support high-definition audio and voice applications.” OK, now I was getting suspicions. This was getting to be marketing fluff and 100% buzzword compliant. All marketing people have to go to the Fran Granville School of speaking clearly and getting to the point. The CX20562 is not a speaker on a chip. It is an audio codec. Apparently the people at Conexant are ashamed they make audio codecs. Why else would they claim to make speakers when they really make codecs? I don’t know why they are so ashamed, I mean, making a codec is a very difficult job. It is a mixed-signal design where you have fast digital signals injecting currents into the same IC substrate that you are trying to make low-noise analog circuits. Wolfson is good at it; I have a meeting with them today as a matter of fact. I know National Semiconductor has some great codecs too. So do Cirrus Logic and NXP and a lot of other analog companies. None of those companies call their products speakers. That is because an IC is not a speaker. It is an integrated circuit. I sure hope this latest exercise in marketing mis-direction does not catch on. Otherwise I will be getting press releases on how PMD is making a motor on a chip, when really they make great motion control ICs. And no, Miss, this car was not a taxicab, that is just yellow primer.

*Sorry, Conexant uses JavaScript to invoke the pdf press releases so I cannot give you direct link, you have to sift though the page to get the pdf file dated 05/19/08. My opinion of JavaScript is here.