The ADAU1442 from Analog Devices is a very interesting chip. It is powerful enough for many audio processing tasks and not too expensive. However DIYers don’t use it very often. Why? There are some problems:

• The chip comes in 100-lead TQFP package and is not easy to solder.
• External DACs and ADCs are needed to add analog audio – the chip itself is purely digital and has no analog input and outputs
• The Analog prototyping module costs more then 600$ which is too expensive for most DIY tests
• There are not many DIYers that think they can program a DSP by themself.

The last problem is not a big problem, because Analog provide the Sigma Studio IDE that allows to create all kinds of digital filters and creates the DSP software for you.

Why not fix the other issues? We’re thinking about a prototyping board for the ADAU1442. It would include

• the DSP chip,
• some analog inputs and outputs (not sure about this, because it will consume a lot of space on the PCB),
• a power supply,
• an I2S interface to add external I2S devices (even a Raspberry Pi might be an option),
• an interface for a microcontroller, and
• pin headers to put it on a breadboard

What do you think? Would you like this kind of board?