Pre Production
WM8941
Companding converts 13 bits (µ-law) or 12 bits (A-law) to 8 bits using non-linear quantization. The
input data range is separated into 8 levels, allowing low amplitude signals better precision than that
of high amplitude signals. This is to exploit the operation of the human auditory system, where
louder sounds do not require as much resolution as quieter sounds. The companded signal is an 8-
bit word containing sign (1-bit), exponent (3-bits) and mantissa (4-bits).
BIT7
BIT[6:4]
BIT[3:0]
SIGN
EXPONENT
MANTISSA
Table 52 8-bit Companded Word Composition
u-law Companding
1
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Normalised Input
Figure 39 u-Law Companding
A-law Companding
1
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Normalised Input
Figure 40 A-Law Companding
PP, Rev 3.3, December 2007
67
w
WOLFSON [ WOLFSON MICROELECTRONICS PLC ]
