AAPL Company

Audience powers iPhone 4's impressive noise cancellation, X-Ray analysis shows

9to5 Staff | May 17 2011 - 12:20 pm PT

iFixit points at a Chipworks analysis of the iPhone 4’s voice processor that powers the noise cancellation feature which improves call quality by suppressing background noise while boosting the caller’s voice. It’s an Audience-branded silicon, as denoted by the Audience marking innocuously placed inside the chip itself. The Chipworks team has figured this out by X-Raying the chip, as always.

The finding put to rest speculation whether Apple had invented their voice processor or licensed third-party tech. Teardown wizards over at iFixit also noted that a small 3mm x 3mm chip sits right next to the A4 processor.

The package has an embedded digital signal processor with accompanying analog front ends. The iPhone’s audio cancellation capabilities are very impressive, outperforming just every non-Audience powered cell phone we’ve tried… This is a huge win for Audience. They’re seeing impressive traction in other smartphones. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Apple decides to integrate the technology into the A5 (as they have with other subcomponents) or if this relationship with Audience is long-term.

iFixit’s Kyle Wiend told me in an email that Audience is “the same company that powered the Nexus One’s innovative audio cancellation”. Go past the break for another amazing look at the chip’s innards plus a YouTube clip demoing its noise cancellation capabilities.