Fixed Mobile Convergence

Multi-core digital signal processor (DSP) supplier picoChip (News - Alert) announced the launch of new high-performance picoArray devices, which delivers processing power of up to 262GIPS and 35GMACS.

 

According to picoChip, its expanded product line that includes PC202-10, PC203-10 and PC205-10 multi-core DSPs are the market's only devices to deliver true single-chip IO-MIMO for WiMAX (News - Alert) and might set a standard in high-performance signal processing as well.

 

The new enhanced members of the company’s PC20x series facilitates designers to deliver advanced features by utilizing fewer devices in highly demanding applications, such as advanced wireless infrastructure products.

 

The earlier PC20x series products were launched in 2006. These devices were launched for next-generation wireless and its applications that included femtocell solutions and the de facto standard for WiMAX PHY implementations. These devices broke the $1/GMAC barrier.

 

According to picoChip, the PC20xx-10 devices are based on multi-core picoArray architecture with a larger array of processors and full code compatibility as its legacy devices.

 

The picoChip picoArray architecture has been demonstrated in independent benchmarks, in order to deliver a 40-fold advantage in price-performance, and eight fold increases in absolute performance, when compared with traditional DSPs.

 

The multi-core nature of the picoArray architecture is leveraged to increase the number of processor elements in the PC20x-10 devices, from 248 to 273. This gives performance uplift in these devices. The increase in the number of processor elements also increases memory size by 8 percent, thereby encouraging the designers to implement value-added functionality as well as to create and enhance robust turnkey solutions, says company.

 

The PC20x-10 devices does not change clock rate and are also fully code-compatible similar to PC20xx-10 devices. With this feature the software written for the smaller chips can immediately run on the new devices.

 

The PC2xx-10 devices that have extra processing headroom facilitate OEMs to create 3G, WiMAX and 4G wireless products. Some of the illustrations include: complex multi-sector cellular base-station’s realization utilizing fewer chips; femtocells with new features or custom functionality; and premium products equipped with enhanced features.

 

According to picoChip, the PC205-10 is at the heart of company’s single-chip WiMAX solution and is the industry’s only offering capable of delivering true IO-MIMO ( Input/Output- memory in memory out), which is a critical requirement of mobile WiMAX.

 

All the PC20x-10 devices are programmed in standard ANSI C. They feature a cryptographic engine as well as an optimized co-processor for FFT/IFFT, Viterbi and turbo decoders.

 

All three basic legacy variants in the PC20x series are suited to complete software radio systems. The full reference designs are available for WiMAX and WCDMA (including HSDPA, with upgrade to HSUPA), said the company.

 

Doug Pulley (News - Alert), CTO and co-founder at picoChip, said, “The PC20x-10 devices represent a vital step in the evolution of the picoChip product offering. The PC20x family is the market leader, and for most applications we see today provides more than enough processing power. However, we see some customers pushing the boundaries in design innovation and that’s where the PC20x-10s will really come into their own. An attraction of our multi-core architecture is how easy it is to scale the array to suit the needs of the problem: smaller for lower price or bigger, as here, for higher performance.”