To bring advanced audio technology to laptop and desktop PCs powered by Intel microprocessors, Intel Capital (News - Alert) has invested an undisclosed sum of money in Japan’s mixed-signal circuits developer Trigence Semiconductor Inc. According to the investor, Intel plans to tap Trigence Semiconductor’s Dnote audio technology for use in computers based on its processors. 

As per the description provided in the Intel release, the Dnote technology uses digital signals to directly drive multiple moving coil analog speakers. Trigence said that its technology has been licensed to Japanese car-audio and amusement game manufacturers and the company also sells DSP chips that implement the Dnote technology.

In a statement, Trigence said the money from Intel Capital would be used to "expand integration of Dnote to computing devices, including Intel Architecture-based PCs, Ultrabooks, and smartphones." As a result, Trigence expects to expand both its LSI sales and licensing businesses.

In another statement, Akira Yasuda, founder, president and CEO, Trigence Semiconductor, said, "Audio technology is evolving substantially, as a new user interface for computers. We think it will become a key aspect of communication between computers and people, as an interactive user interface using speech recognition, rather than just for listening to music. With the new investment, we aim to step up our licensing of technology for computing devices, and to substantially reinforce our business infrastructure by starting volume production of chips.”

Similarly, commented Intel KK president Kazumasa Yoshida, "We expect this technology will bring an innovative high fidelity experience to the wide variety of digital devices such as PCs, Ultrabook and smartphones." 

Tokyo, Japan based Trigence Semiconductor was founded in February 2006, and offers expertise in analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter (ADC (News - Alert) and DAC) design, as well as high-speed interfaces. The company claims that DSP based Dnote technology enables higher quality audio while consuming low power.