picoChip (News - Alert) has announced three new products that enable customers to address the comprehensive range of femtocell necessities through a single design platform.
A comprehensive family of system-level femtocell solutions is formed by the introduction of the two new two new picoXcell system-on-chip, or “SoC,” devices and an integrated suite of HSPA+ femtocell access point, or “FAP,” software.
picoChip’s established, robust, operator-deployed picoXcell family of devices is broadened by the new PC313 and PC323 chips. These chips are comprehensive single-chip HSPA+ femtocell SoCs for 8 or 24 users correspondingly and can be scaled to have to capacity for more users. All the core components of a 3GPP standards-defined Home NodeB is provided by the PC2200 FAP software which allows manufacturers to develop femtocells more easily.
CEO of picoChip, Nigel Toon, said that picoXcell now offers the most complete and fully proven solutions in the femtocell market. picoChip also has the most complete range of products.
Operators already value the ability to deliver the perfect coverage to domestic users but Toon noted that the next generation of femtocells will do more than that. It will change operator revenue models, enabling new services, and fundamentally revolutionizing the way carriers build networks.
Several industry firsts are brought by the new picoXcell SoCs such as the 3GPP Release 8 which features 42Mbps downlink and 11Mbps uplink data rates. They are pin-compatible with the PC302 and PC312 devices but by integrating the most advanced technologies specified in Release 8 they expand pichoChip’s technology expertise.
Included is Multiple Input-Multiple Output (MIMO) to allow the highest data rates and receive diversity. This is important to attain the higher real-world user counts needed for enterprise and ‘greater femto’ applications.
Intended to accommodate up to 24 simultaneous users for campus, enterprise, rural and metro femtocell usage scenarios with a cell radius of up to 2km, PC323 is the picoXcell SoC for ‘greater femto’ applications from picoChip. Systems with 48 users can use two cascaded devices to power it up. The enhanced eight-user SoC solution from picoChip is the PC313 which was intended for high-end residential and SME applications.
To deliver the lowest bill of materials in the industry, these two devices are optimized for low-power and are highly integrated. Features like these allow mass volume consumer femtocell applications plus integration into ‘Digital-Living Room’ residential gateway products. Femtocells (News - Alert) are moved to the next level in performance and cell density by the ground-breaking MIMO technology integrated in these picoChip products.
Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Kelly McGuire