Fortemedia Introduces Industry's Lowest-power VID Processor iM501 for Wearables, IoT, and Smart Home

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Voice processing has become one of the indispensable technologies for the AI (Artificial Intelligence) interface in the accelerating trend toward smart home system and wearable devices. Precise and prompt voice command recognition, along with minimizing power consumption for durability are the key for these applications. Fortemedia Inc., a global leading company in small array microphone and voice acoustic processing technology, today introduced its latest voice processor, iM501. Embedding a high-end Tensilica® HiFi Mini DSP core, iM501 provides the best-in-class solution for always-on voice detection with low power consumption.

Key features and benefits of iM501

• Best-in-class low power always-listening solution offering high performance voice trigger and wake-up for mobile and wearables
• Support OEM customers to self-define trigger phrase and vocabulary integration
• Flexibility in adjustable thresholds for balancing between trigger accuracy and power saving

iM501 is also best-suited to IoT (Internet of Things) and automotive, enabling high speech quality in hands-free communication and superior precision for voice command with Fortemedia's advanced voice processing technologies.

Furthermore iM501, in association with iM205 Fortemedia's latest smart microphone processor, can ultimately perform ultra-low power consumption. Building-in 474 kBytes on-chip memory with automatic voice buffer scheme, iM501 can truly achieve multiple voice-trigger engines, smart microphone controls, and a minimum of 3 seconds of voice buffer, largely improving both human-to-machine and human-to-human voice communications. The firmware framework also implements a VOS (Voice Operating System) to facilitate data path plug-in of 3rd-party algorithms.

Voice Interface Device, VID

With iSAM, the acoustic processing technology, Fortemedia introduced iM501 and iM205 for VID (Voice Interface Device) products. The essential attributes for VID consist the ability to continuously monitor environment noise, to enhance voice recognition significantly and to respond promptly with minimum power consumption that can meet various industry standards for mobile, automotive, and computing application, etc.

"In today's highly mobile world, voice communication happens everywhere," said Dr. Paul Huang, CEO of Fortemedia Inc. "Smart Appliances, Wearables, and Autonomous Vehicles all demand for precise voice recognition with low power consumption. Fortemedia's iSAM, the brand-new acoustic processing technology, enables VID products to continuously monitor environment noise, to optimize voice recognition using minimal power consumption to meet various industry standards."

Fortemedia, Inc.

Fortemedia, Inc., headquartered in the US Silicon Valley with global operations and offices in Asia, focuses on developing high quality solutions and semiconductor products to enhance human-to-human and human-to-machine voice communication quality and efficiencies.

As a technology leader, Fortemedia's ASIC devices and solutions with advanced voice processing technologies, SAM (Small Array Microphone), SAMSoft®, and ForteVoice®, have all been widely deployed in numerous commercial systems, devices, and applications for better user experience in voice communication. Fortemedia is well-positioned to fulfill customer and market needs in mobile (smartphone and tablet), automotive (in-vehicle infotainment system), PC (VoIP communication), and wearables, with its wide range of product offering in software, DSP IC, and small array microphone. Learn more at www.fortemedia.com.

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SOURCE Fortemedia International, Ltd.