NXP and Amazon Work Together to Bring More Alexa Experiences to the Smart Home

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, April 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI) today announced the release of the NXP reference platform for Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Alexa, that integrates Amazon’s far-field voice recognition technology and the Alexa Voice Service (AVS).   

Designed to simplify the creation of new voice-control devices, the new NXP reference platform for Amazon Alexa on i.MX is a complete system containing Amazon’s 7-microphone array design, far-field audio processing technology, and AVS client to enable customers and partners to create their own high performance devices with Alexa.

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Designed to simplify the creation of new voice-control devices, the new NXP reference platform for Amazon Alexa on i.MX is a complete system containing Amazon’s 7-microphone array design, far-field audio processing technology, and AVS client to enable customers and partners to create their own high performance devices with Alexa. NXP’s i.MX applications processors offer the scalability to meet the requirements that are unique to each customer design within the Internet of Things (IoT). The applications processor portfolio features the i.MX 6 series for general purpose applications, i.MX 7 series for low power applications, and the new advanced i.MX 8 series to enable rich interactive high performance multimedia and audio experiences.    

“Integrating high quality audio processing has made the development of advanced voice-enabled devices lengthy and complicated,” said Geoff Lees, senior vice president and general manager of microcontrollers at NXP. “NXP’s reference platform for Amazon Alexa is the definitive solution to this problem. This reference design integrates Amazon’s proven far-field voice recognition technology and our popular i.MX development platform to enable the creation of high-performance voice-enabled devices with Alexa and reduce time to market.”

“Customers love being able to talk to Alexa from across the room with Amazon Echo,” said Priya Abani, Director, Alexa. “We are excited to make it even easier for hardware makers to integrate the convenient hands-free Alexa experience into their products, while providing customers with new devices offering access to Alexa.”

Integrated with Amazon Far-field Voice Recognition Technology

The NXP Reference Platform for Amazon Alexa features the same high performance far-field technology developed by Amazon for Amazon Echo. With advanced microphone arrays, audio processing algorithms, and beam forming technology, devices using the NXP reference design for Amazon Alexa will be able to recognize a customer’s request from across the room, even when loud music is playing. The NXP reference platform for Amazon Alexa on i.MX will be available to commercial device manufacturers. OEMs can request an invite on developer.amazon.com to participate in the exclusive preview. For more information about the NXP reference platform for Amazon Alexa, please visit www.nxp.com/alexa.

About i.MX Applications Processors
NXP i.MX applications processors have one of the best power-to-performance ratios of any processor in the world. Based on ARM® core technology, the i.MX family of applications processors delivers power and performance that is crucial in today’s multimedia devices while simultaneously conserving demands on energy use. In addition, i.MX products offer a high degree of integration to help reduce design time. The family combines broad levels of integration and power-efficient processing capabilities as well as high-definition video and targets consumer and industrial applications. For more information about i.MX application processors visit www.nxp.com/imx.

About NXP Semiconductors
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI) enables secure connections and infrastructure for a smarter world, advancing solutions that make lives easier, better and safer. As the world leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, NXP is driving innovation in the secure connected vehicle, end-to-end security and privacy and smart connected solutions markets. Built on more than 60 years of combined experience and expertise, the company has 31,000 employees in more than 33 countries and posted revenue of $9.5 billion in 2016. Find out more at www.nxp.com.

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