Industry experts refer to TrueAudio as a type of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This type of circuit is made for specific uses, such as audio recording or playback, or special audio effects. Different types of new ASICs can be built, including what is called a "system-on-a-chip" design, where the integrated circuit board can include not just a microprocessor, but also memory and other parts.

Essentially, TrueAudio serves as a co-processor for specific audio effects and computational tasks. AMD puts TrueAudio into certain kinds of graphics processing units sold over the last few years. The company refers to TrueAudio as an "audio acceleration unit," suggesting that offloading certain kinds of audio processing tasks to TrueAudio can help provide more efficiency for systems.