I2S

Question: how does I2S do 4-wire output?

Question: how does I2S fit in with AC97?

Breakout Boards

Audio Master Controller

Terminology and lots of confusion. I2S, AC97, PCM, TDM ??? :-)

Physical interface

Both "I2S" and "AC97" use the same physical interface, which is really what "I2S" stands for. AC97 defined a TDM mechanism for fancy data packing.

Multi bit or single bit ?

So far I have not seen a single device with multiple serial data lines (but same bit and word clock). My understanding that multi bit will allow for multiple codecs, but since there is no particular standard for that, I would not recommend implementing this.

A single I2S interface in TDM/AC97 mode, can support over 32 channels of audio. It will be of advantage to have multiple I2S interfaces (complete blocks), as it will give most flexibility. I think two I2S interfaces should be sufficient (one internal link to Bluetooth and such, and one to a codec for external audio, like speaker, headphones, microphones).

So I propose to have each I2S link look like this: * bit clock, input (may be optionally also an output - TBD) * word/frame/lr/sync clock, output * serial data, input * serial data, output * coder reset, output, optional

Protocols

I don't think there is an easy way out, we need to support all protocols there are.

  • basic I2S L/R
  • PCM (very similar to I2S L/R)
  • AC97/TDM

Data Alignment

Powerful data alignment is very important. It is relatively easy to implement in hardware, and is reduces the load on the CPU when moving audio data between different interfaces. * 8, 16, 18, 20, 24, 32 bit sample sizes supported * Left/Right alignment * Packed/unpacked streams

SoC Interface

Two interfaces will be implemented:

  • AXI Light for Register file access
  • AXI Streaming Interface for data

Both interfaces will be slave interfaces. An external DMA can be added to move data from AXI MM to AXI Streaming interface.