Qualcomm’s latest chips aim to improve the ever growing sound space and will be integrated into the next generation of smart assistants, smart speakers, sound bars, and home theaters. The Qualcomm Smart Audio Platform 400 (QCS400) SoC will bring technologies that have been streamlined on mobile processors directly to the audio space, to help solve many common sound issues, including lags in voice recognition and response time, and the media audio quality on smart speakers.

The QCS400 chips include the QCS403 for smart assistants and smart speakers, the QCS404 for smart speakers, the QCS405 for soundbars, home theaters, and smart speakers, and the QCS407 for AVR. Across the board, the chips include a number of specs that are common on smartphones, including the latest, CPUs, Adreno GPUs, DSPs and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards.

Qualcomm has adopted various hi-fidelity audio technologies from Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Virtual X, and low-latency streaming, as well as its own Qualcomm aptX for high-definition audio connectivity. Alongside the new chips, Qualcomm has announced its DDFA amplifier to enrich the audio quality on low-cost smart audio devices, in the $70 to $100 range, in particular.

The chips also highlight improvements to voice interfaces with the ability to power noise canceled four-microphone far-field voice pickup and low-power standby with voice wakeup. With standby battery life improved times 25, device power is more efficiently preserved in down times, while allowing devices to respond with little to no latency among hearing wake up commands.

Hardware featuring these components are expected to release starting in the third quarter of 2019.