Microchip Technology Inc. via its Microsemi Corporation subsidiary, has announced that its AcuEdge ZLK38AVS Development Kit for Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) now introduces far-field voice pick up and the flexibility to build devices with multiple mic array configurations. The solution reduces BOM costs while addressing the requirements of small-form-factor designs. As a leading audio front-end development kit with one-mic hands-free and two or three-mic far-field configurations qualified by Amazon, the solution features the ZL38063 audio processor which includes a 300 MHz DSP and dedicated hardware accelerators for voice processing. It also features Stereo Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC), which enables barge-in recognition to improve the consumer experience in extreme audio playback environments. With the flexibility to work with a variety of microphone options and configurations, Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) and third-party developers can use the development kit to cost effectively achieve their design criteria across a range of applications and form-factor constraints. Available microphone configurations include: One-mic configuration -- Offers hands-free voice coverage for products where form-factor or cost constraints preclude the use of a multi-microphone array. Two and three-mic linear (180-degree) configurations -- Designed for sound bars, smart plugs and switches, set-top-boxes or other applications typically positioned against a wall that benefit from 180-degree far-field coverage. Three-mic triangular (360-degree) configuration -- Also with far-field coverage qualified by Amazon, this configuration is well suited for applications that may require user interaction from any direction such as portable speakers, wide-angle IP cameras and voice-enabled Wi-Fi® routers. The development kit enables far-field speech recognition in the presence of interfering noise sources, including device playback and external noise sources. The field-programmable, field-upgradable solution features signal processing algorithms proven to improve both local trigger detection performance and cloud speech recognition accuracy, while the multi-microphone configurations include Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation to indicate where the primary voice sound source is located.