Audio decompression software for handheld devices

Abstract

Falanx Microsystems have developed a set of hardware IP cores for graphic acceleration on small, handheld devices. But, a programmable Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) can be used for more than just graphics, and this may be of especially great importance on a device with otherwise little processing power. This project looked into the possibility of accelerating the process of audio encoding/decoding, with special focus on the MP3 codec. The project found the Mali GP2 core to be particularly suitable for audio acceleration, and identified the key parts of the MP3 decoder that could be accelerated. The decoding steps were scheduled and compared to an estimated CPU usage, with a verdict towards a huge saving in processing time.