Yamaha Launches YMU759 Sound Generator IC for Mobile Phones and PDAs

Business Wire, Sept 5, 2000

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

REPEATING...

HAMAMATSU CITY, Shizuoka--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2000

Tiny Chip Packs Power of High Quality Music into Mobile Phones and

PDAs

Samples and Authoring System Available Soon for Product Designers and

Content Creators

Yamaha Corporation, an established leader in sound generation and digital audio, has developed a new sound generator IC for mobile phones and PDAs called the YMU759 that gives mobile phone and PDA users an assortment of new options for music and sound effects playback.

Though packed with features, the YMU759 is designed for easy incorporation into any mobile phone or PDA product. Yamaha will begin shipping samples priced at (Y)1,000 from September 1 and the company is aiming to sell 2 million units per month.

"With our new sound generator IC, mobile phones and PDAs will be greatly enhanced," says Yutaro Nakano, overseas sales and marketing manager at Yamaha's Semiconductor Division. "For the first time product developers can offer consumers an almost infinite variety of ways to personalize ring melodies and mobile entertainment like karaoke practice and games with high-quality music," he adds.

New Chip, same excellent Yamaha audio quality

The YMU759 is Yamaha's second generation sound generator IC product for mobile phones and PDAs and, like the earlier well-received YMU757, it includes a built-in FM (Frequency Modulation) sound generator (See note 1) -- a technology that has an extensive track record in synthesizers and personal computers. The YMU759 can generate 16 simultaneous voices, four times as many as the earlier YMU757, with a different instrument in each voice.

As the YMU759 also includes a built-in ADPCM (Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation) sound generator (See note 2), it can play back digitally recorded (sampled) sounds such as human voices. This makes possible the creation of previously unheard-of types of content, such as the marriage of a photograph and voice of a TV personality in a message.

In addition to featuring stereo sound generation, the YMU759 provides an extensive set of functions for superlative musical expression. These include 128 GM (General MIDI) instruments and 128 other instruments (See note 3); a hardware sequencer that can play back complex melodies with less CPU utilization; and a built-in speaker amplifier with the power output increased to 550 mW. The chip also features a design that provides excellent ease-of-use in mobile phones and PDAs. Yamaha is also developing an authoring system and recommended data formats for content providers.

Sound clips of audio produced by Yamaha's YMU759 can be heard at the following URL (explanation in Japanese): http://www.yamaha.co.jp/news/00061401.html

The YMU759's Features

1. Built-in ADPCM sound generator for playback of digitally recorded audio

In addition to an FM sound generator that can provide melody playback with excellent sound quality, the YMU759 newly includes a built-in ADPCM sound generator that allows the reproduction of natural sounds, such as digitally recorded human voices, bird or animal calls, or the sound of the wind and waves. This allows the creation of completely new types of content, such as messages that include the photograph and voice of a TV personality or the image of a seascape with the sound of waves. The YMU759 can precisely synchronize the compressed audio from the ADPCM sound generator with performances using the FM sound generator, a feature that provides a backing chorus for a melody, for example.

2. 16-note polyphony for superlative musical expression

Both the YMU759 and the earlier YMU757 include a built-in FM sound generator. The YMU759 offers a standard library of 256 instruments, including the 128 instruments specified by the GM standard, as well as an unlimited range of voices. However, while the earlier YMU757 offered 4-note polyphony the YMU759 offers 16-note polyphony - a feature used either to create 16-note harmonies or notes with 16 different timbres. Furthermore, content creators will love how the YMU759 lets them allocate each part to either the left or the right stereo channel for even greater expressive power in music creation.

3. Built-in hardware sequencer for high-quality music playback

The YMU759 includes a built-in hardware sequencer that can reproduce music data with less CPU utilization. In addition to reliable playback of even the most complex melodies in synchronization, the YMU759 frees the CPU from music playback processing so it can be used for other data processing while the YMU759 does its work. This allows products to achieve true multimedia content reproduction--like simultaneous display of karaoke text and graphics. The YMU759 even includes a "sound vibration function" that can control the mobile phone's vibration drive timing. With this function, vibrations can be synchronized with beats of music in a game being played on the mobile phone, for example.

4. Built-in functions improve ease-of-use when designing the YMU759 into mobile phones and PDAs