Zhongke Bluexun's "Xunlong 2nd Generation" Bluetooth SoC Chip Released! Mass Production to Begin in January Next Year

On December 17, Mr. Liu Zhuzhan, CEO of Zhongke Bluexun, and Mr. Qiu Fenghai, CEO of Beijing Soundplus Technology, jointly released Bluexun's "Xunlong 2nd Generation" Bluetooth SoC chip. The performance of the "Xunlong 2nd Generation" chip has been greatly improved in power consumption, radio frequency, ANC, AI and other fields. In particular, the chip integrates Soundplus Technology's ENC algorithm.

Data from Qualcomm's "Audio Product Status Survey Report 2020" shows that "hearing clearly and speaking clearly" is the current performance requirement of the Bluetooth headset market. There are more and more scenarios where Bluetooth headsets are used for calls. In response to these needs, Zhongke Bluexun grandly launched the "Xunlong Second Generation" product.

Since June 2020, Zhongke Bluexun has launched the "Xunlong Generation 1" series of Bluetooth SoCs, targeting differentiated applications for brand customers. After about half a year, it has been widely used by customers including mobile phones, e-commerce and traditional audio brands. In particular, multiple projects of Hybrid ANC products have entered the mass production stage. The Bluexun Xunlong product line has been initially recognized by the industry.

It is reported that the "Xunlong 2nd Generation" adopts the latest 40nm ULP process and with the chip design capability of Zhongke Bluexun's multi-core parallel computing, the power consumption of music playback has been reduced to 5mA, reaching the mainstream level of the industry. With the help of the new RF architecture, the wireless receiving sensitivity has been improved from -92.5dB of "Xunlong 1st Generation" to -95dB, and the transmission power has also been increased to a level greater than 10dBm, which can better adapt to different product forms and antenna structures.

The ANC controller has also been upgraded from 1.0 to 2.0, which improves the calculation accuracy and optimizes the adaptability to special boundary conditions to prevent user experience problems such as squeezing and howling and sudden loud noises causing system instability. At the same time, a new production test system is also being developed to improve the production line's production pass rate, which will be released later.

In terms of audio, "Xunlong Second Generation" supports high-definition decoding such as AACLHDCLDAC, and supports BT5.2 LE Audio, which can bring users better music enjoyment.

In terms of AI layout, "Xunlong Second Generation" supports platforms such as Google Fast Pairing, Baidu, Tmall Genie, Xiao Ai (in connection), Tencent (in connection), etc., and will provide stable wireless connection for AIoT and the Internet of Everything, and enjoy rich cloud resources.

It is understood that in order to better improve the calling experience of wireless headset users, Zhongke Bluexun and Beijing Shengjia Technology have carried out in-depth cooperation, and the "Xunlong Second Generation" integrates Shengjia Technology's ENC algorithm.

The ENC algorithm of Beijing Shengjia Technology has been widely used in headphone products of mobile phone brands including Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, etc., and is an ENC algorithm that has been strictly tested by a large number of market users.

Through deep collaboration in algorithm and chip design, Shengjia and Bluexun have distributed complex ENC computing requirements in a parallel multi-core architecture, ensuring the effect while greatly optimizing the overall power consumption under the 40nm process. The two parties have successfully developed AI Single MIC DNN and Dual MIC Beamforming ENC algorithms for "Xunlong Generation 2".

This cooperation is the first time that Soundplus Technology has implemented the ENC algorithm in the RISC-V platform. It is also the first time that the ENC algorithm has been implemented through software and hardware co-design. This cooperation model will make the system more optimized and stable, while reducing the difficulty of secondary development. With the improvement of subsequent processes and computing resources, Bluexun and Soundplus Technology will have more algorithm joint development cooperation.

The above is the preliminary chip model of "Xunlong Second Generation". The chip is scheduled to be mass-produced at the end of January 2021. Please pay attention.