QNX Technical Articles

Date of this edition: May 13, 2010

Target OS: This software is compatible with target systems running QNX^® Neutrino^® 6.3.2, 6.4.0, 6.4.1, or 6.5.0.

Host OS: You must have already installed the QNX^® Momentics^® development suite 6.3.2 or the QNX Software Development Platform 6.4.0, 6.4.1, or 6.5.0 as a self-hosted QNX^® Neutrino^® system, or on one of the following development hosts:

Contents

• What's in this package?
  • New acoustic processing options
  • API changes
  • Binaries
  • Sample source code
• Fixed issues
• Known issues
• Benchmarks
  • ROM benchmarks
  • MIPS/RAM benchmarks
• Documentation
• Technical support

Throughout this document, you may see reference numbers associated with particular issues, changes, etc. When corresponding with our Technical Support staff about a given issue, please quote the relevant reference number. You might also find the reference numbers useful for tracking issues as they become fixed.

For the most up-to-date version of these release notes, go to our website, www.qnx.com, log into your myQNX account, and then go to the Download Center.

What's in this package?

New acoustic processing options

The core features of QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing version 1.2 include:

• Send-side(Mic-In audio signal)
  • Acoustic echo cancellation (AEC)
  • Noise reduction (NR)
  • Automatic gain control (AGC)
  • Parametric equalization (PEQ)
  • Dual-channel capability (MIX)
  • High frequency encoding (HFE)
  • Wind buffet suppression (WNDB)
  • Dynamic limiter (SDL)
• Receive-side(Recv-In audio signal)
  • Bandwidth extension (RBWE)
  • Parametric equalization (RPEQ)
  • Automatic gain control (RAGC)
  • Dynamic limiter (RDL)
  • Dynamic level control (RDLC)
• Diagnostics API (DIAG)
• Remote control server (RCS)
• Windows remote control client (QWALive)

The new features in the QNX AAP 1.3 include:

• Binary configuration file load support
• Wideband support (WBND)
• Send-side(Mic-In audio signal)
  • Dynamic parametric equalization (DPEQ)
• Receive-side(Recv-In audio signal)
  • Electrical noise suppression (RENS)
  • Double talk filter (RDTF)
• Diagnostics (DIAG)
  • Output clipping statistics
• QWALive remote control client
  • Binary configuration file save support
  • Audio signal injection support
  • Coherence measurements
  • Total harmonic distortion measurements

To support the new features the following parameters were added:

• qwaAECFiltLen
• qwaSendDynEQSwitch
• qwaSendParamEQ2Nodes
• qwaSendEQ2Curve
• qwaSendDynEQCurve
• qwaSendDynEQMinMaxSNR
• qwaRecvDTFSwitch
• qwaRecvDTFMaxEchoRatio
• qwaRecvDTFResponse
• qwaRecvDTFMaxAtten
• qwaRecvENSSwitch
• qwaRecvENSSuppress
• qwaRecvENSActivityRatio
• qwaMicOutClipStats
• qwaMicOutResetClipStats
• qwaMicOutClipStatsMode
• qwaRecvOutClipStats
• qwaRecvOutResetClipStats
• qwaRecvOutClipStatsMode
• qwaAECResEchoRT60ms

For the description of these parameters, please see the “QWA Parameters” section in the User's Guide.

API changes

The following lists all the API changes in this version:

• The parameter qwaSendLimitMode has been deprecated and will default to qwaSoftLimit. For backwards compatibility, any qwaSetData() call setting this parameter to qwaHardLimit will succeed, but the mode will remain as qwaSoftLimit.
• Modified the maximum possible value for parameter qwaMaxFreqProc to Nyquist of the microphone output sample rate.
• Added support for binary configuration load at initialization (qwaInitialize()).

Binaries

The following binary files are installed under $QNX_TARGET/, in subdirectories for each supported target platform:

ARMLE

• armle/lib/libqwa.a
• armle/lib/libqwaS.a
• armle/lib/libqwa-vfp.a
• armle/lib/libqwa-vfpS.a
• armle/lib/libqwa_rcs.a
• armle/lib/libqwa_rcsS.a
• armle/lib/libqwa_rcs-vfp.a
• armle/lib/libqwa_rcs-vfpS.a

PPCBE

• ppcbe/lib/libqwa.a
• ppcbe/lib/libqwaS.a
• ppcbe/lib/libqwa_rcs.a
• ppcbe/lib/libqwa_rcsS.a

SHLE

• shle/lib/libqwa.a
• shle/lib/libqwaS.a
• shle/lib/libqwa_rcs.a
• shle/lib/libqwa_rcsS.a

Header files

• usr/include/qwa_rcs_err.h
• usr/include/qwa_rcs.h
• usr/include/qwa_err.h
• usr/include/qwa_defs.h
• usr/include/qwa.h

The following binary files are installed under base_dir\install\qnxaviage-ap\1.3\ on Windows systems:

• QWALive\QWALive.exe

Sample source code

The following source code files with examples of how to use QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing 1.3 are installed under $QNX_TARGET/:

• etc/readme/qnxaviage-ap/qwa_hf_example.c
• etc/readme/qnxaviage-ap/qwa_rcs_example.c
• etc/readme/qnxaviage-ap/qwa_vr_example.c

Fixed issues

• Fixed issue when using dual-channel mode and High Frequency Encoding (HFE) where, the background noise estimation was based only on the left microphone signal. (Ref# 54199)
• Fixed issue, where the qwa_rcs_example did not retrieve the receive output frame shift separate from the microphone output frame shift as per the change in how output sample rates were handled between versions 1.1 and 1.2. (Ref# 62659)
• Fixed issue for the integer version, where in certain receive input scenarios including low-level negative DC values, the acoustic echo cancellation module may adapt incorrectly to the non-realistic input. (Ref# 63069, 59027)
• Fixed issue, where when processing at higher framerate (64 pt frameshift at 8 or 11kHz, or 128 pt frameshift at 16 or 22kHz) there were some rare circumstances (certain defrost noises) when coherence noise caused musical tones. (Ref# 63212)

Known issues

• The qwaRcsCreate() call will fail unless the user's calling thread is set at priority 10. (Ref# 60009)

Benchmarks

Here's a summary of the abbreviations used in this section. For more details, see the Acoustic Processing User's Guide.

We used the following hardware for our benchmarks:

The Vax-MIPS rating of the embedded hardware was determined by compiling a release-mode Dhrystone executable from source code with the -o6 optimization level and running the resulting executable on the target hardware under QNX Neutrino 6.3. As vendor-supplied CPU MIPS ratings typically reflect the performance of hand-crafted assembler code, our Vax-MIPS rating is typically around 50% of the vendor reported one.

ROM Benchmarks

MIPS/RAM Benchmarks

Handsfree mode

NB single channel mode, AEC on, NR on

• DL-In/Mic-In = 8 kHz SR
• Recv-Out/Mic-Out = 8 kHz SR
• Base = AEC + NR
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + DPEQ + SDL + AGC + WNDB
• Receive-side Full Featured = Base + BWE + RPEQ + RAGC + RDLC + RENS + RDTF

NB dual channel mode, AEC on, NR on, MIX on

• DL-In/(Mic-In)x2 = 8 kHz SR
• Recv-Out/Mic-Out = 8 kHz SR
• Base = AEC + NR + MIX
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + DPEQ + SDL + AGC + WNDB
• Receive-side Full Featured = Base + BWE + RPEQ + RAGC + RDLC + RENS + RDTF

NB single channel mode, AEC on, NR on, HFE on

• DL-In = 8 kHz SR
• Mic-In = 16 kHz SR
• Recv-Out = 16 kHz SR
• Mic-Out = 8 kHz SR
• Base = AEC + NR + HFE
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + DPEQ + SDL + AGC + WNDB
• Receive-side Full Featured = Base + BWE + RPEQ + RAGC + RDLC + RENS + RDTF

NB dual channel mode, AEC on, NR on, HFE on, MIX on

• DL-In = 8 kHz SR
• Mic-In = 16 kHz SR
• Recv-Out = 16 kHz SR
• Mic-Out = 8 kHz SR
• Base = AEC + NR + HFE + MIX
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + PEQ + SDL + AGC + WNDB + HFE
• Receive-side Full Featured = Base + BWE + RPEQ + RAGC + RDLC + RENS + RDTF

WB single channel mode, AEC on, NR on

• DL-In = 16 kHz SR
• Mic-In = 16 kHz SR
• Recv-Out = 16 kHz SR
• Mic-Out = 16 kHz SR
• Base = AEC + NR
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + DPEQ + SDL + AGC + WNDB
• Receive-side Full Featured = Base + RPEQ + RAGC + RDLC + RENS + RDTF

WB dual channel mode, AEC on, NR on, MIX on

• DL-In = 16 kHz SR
• Mic-In = 16 kHz SR
• Recv-Out = 16 kHz SR
• Mic-Out = 16 kHz SR
• Base = AEC + NR + MIX
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + DPEQ + SDL + AGC + WNDB
• Receive-side Full Featured = Base + RPEQ + RAGC + RDLC + RENS + RDTF

Voice-recognition mode

NB single channel mode, NR on

• Mic-In = 11 kHz SR
• Mic-Out = 11 kHz SR
• Base = NR
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + WNDB

NB dual channel mode, NR on, MIX on

• (Mic-In)x2 = 11 kHz SR
• Mic-Out = 11 kHz SR
• Base = NR + MIX
• Send-side Full Featured = Base + WNDB

MIPS benchmarks were calculated when running the library alone on the platforms listed above. MIPS benchmarks may vary with the audio input to the library.

Documentation

The functionality provided by this package is described in the QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing User's Guide, which you'll find in the IDE's help system on Linux and Windows systems. On self-hosted Neutrino systems, you can find the documentation in the Photon helpviewer.

You'll find the QWALive User's Guide installed as base_dir\install\qnxaviage-ap\1.3\QWALive.pdf on Windows systems, where base_dir is where you installed QNX Momentics or QNX SDP.

You'll find the sample programs and a PDF version of the Acoustic Processing User's Guide in the $QNX_TARGET/etc/readme/qnxaviage-ap directory.

Technical support

To obtain technical support for any QNX product, visit the Support area on our website (www.qnx.com). You'll find a wide range of support options, including community forums.