Current Maturity of Custom C/C++ Development on HiFi 3z Core?

Dear Team,

We are evaluating the ADAU1797A for a hearable/audio application and need to implement a custom feature extraction algorithm (statistical/spectral analysis of the incoming audio stream) directly on-device, beyond what the standard SigmaStudio+ block library offers.

Before investing further, we'd like to understand the current, real-world maturity of the C/C++ development path on the HiFi 3z core. We found the following public forum history and want to make sure we have an up-to-date picture:

In May 2024, an ADI engineer noted in this thread (ADAU1797 Compatibility, https://ez.analog.com/audio/speech-processing-solutions/f/q-a/582821/adau1797-compatibility/528089) that the "SS+ ADU1797Z platform is not yet publicly available," and a customer in the same thread reported being unable to locate the HiFi platform option in SigmaStudio+, encountering crashes on update, and missing SDK documentation.

In December 2025, a different ADI engineer, responding to a related question (ADAU1467 vs. ADAU1787 vs. ADAU1797A, https://ez.analog.com/dsp/sigmadsp/f/q-a/601569/adau1467-vs-adau1787-vs-adau1797a), still described the HiFi 3z path as "opens up a lot of complications" and stated this would require being connected directly with a dedicated support engineer.

We're aware of the general SigmaDSP FAQ stating that custom C/assembly coding is not supported on the classic SigmaDSP core — our question specifically concerns the HiFi 3z (Tensilica) core on the ADAU1797A, which according to the datasheet supports direct C/C++ programming via Xtensa Xplorer, distinct from the classic SigmaDSP architecture.

Could you help us understand:

1. Is the SigmaStudio+ HiFi platform and SDK for the ADAU1797A now stable enough that a customer can independently write and deploy fully custom C code on the HiFi 3z core, without requiring dedicated support intervention just to get started?

2. Is there existing example code for a custom feature-extraction-style algorithm on the ADAU1797A specifically, similar to the ADAU1860 examples ("Moving Data to Hifi3z Block Based," "Moving audio data to Hifi3z Core Sample by Sample")?

We'd like to get a clear, current picture before committing further evaluation time and hardware purchase. Happy to continue any more detailed discussion offline if needed.

Thank you in advance,
best regards

Peggy

interface and isolation

hifi3z

ADAU1797

as obtaining reliable access is part of what this inquiry is about

software

adau1797a

product

processors and dsp

Xtensa

N/A – we do not yet have access to SigmaStudio+/Xtensa Xplorer

Sigmastudio+

Processors and Microcontrollers

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