picoChip Launches New Family of Cost-Effective Multi-Core DSP Chips for Next-Generation Wireless, Breaks $1/GMAC Barrier
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—March 21, 2006—
picoChip Designs Limited:
-- 10x performance advantage compared with standard DSPs; most
competitive pricing in the industry at only $1/GMAC
-- Software-defined PHY provides flexible and upgradeable support
for WiMAX/WiBro, 3G and beyond
picoChip has launched its next generation of picoArray multi-core
processor arrays for next-generation wireless systems. The PC202,
PC203 and PC205 are the first devices in the family, and are highly
integrated, high-performance and extremely cost-effective DSPs. While
the three devices each have different performance and features, they
all integrate around 200 or more individual processors onto each die
and deliver over 100GIPs and 25GMACs - dramatically better performance
than legacy single-core DSPs. With pricing from just $25 in high
volume, this achieves the '$1 per GMAC' metric, enabling unprecedented
performance at consumer price-points. The PC202 and 205 also integrate
a powerful ARM9 processor.
All three products are programmed in standard C or assembler,
making them suited to complete software radio systems, and full
reference designs are available for WiMAX (both 16d and 16e) and WCDMA
(including HSDPA, with upgrade to HSUPA).
Will Strauss of Forward Concepts commented, "The industry is
moving to multi-core processors and picoChip is ahead of the game,
already having volume shipments. Few other manufacturers in the world
can compare with what picoChip is doing right now, and with 10 times
the MIPs per dollar of traditional solutions the advance in
price-performance points is simply stunning."
The PC202 integrates 198 individual DSPs, as well as an ARM
926EJ-S for control and MAC functionality, and is intended for
cost-critical applications such as WiMAX client side systems and
access points, and WCDMA femtocells (home basestations).
The PC203 has 248 individual processors and is designed for
basestation (BS) applications where it can support popular wireless
communication protocols such as WiMAX and HSDPA/HSUPA, including
support for advanced algorithms such as MIMO and beamforming. It is
used with an external control processor or network processor in large
basestations.
Like the PC203, the PC205 has 248 individual DSPs, and in addition
includes a powerful ARM 926EJ-S. It is intended for higher-performance
stand-alone applications including software-defined radios and
high-performance backhaul or mesh nodes. The ARM processor is used for
all higher MAC and basestation control tasks, dramatically reducing
bill-of-materials.
All three chips feature a cryptographic engine, and optimized
co-processors for FFT/IFFT, Viterbi and turbo decoders (including CTC
for 16e). This functionality is all integrated into picoChip's
interconnect fabric and development environment, making it very easy
to program, integrate and verify.
The individual DSPs used in all three devices are
backward-compatible with those used in picoChip's PC102 device, which
has been shipping in volume for over a year. This has enabled
picoChip's customers to develop systems using PC102, and then benefit
directly from the cost-savings provided by PC20x devices as soon as
they are available.
Each individual processor is a fully-featured DSP, including a
16x16-bit multiplier with 40-bit accumulators, local instruction and
data memory, and uses a modified three-way Long Instruction Word (LIW)
architecture. This means that, for example, a processor can execute a
Multiply-Accumulate (MAC) instruction and up to three other
instructions in the same cycle. With 248 processors in PC203 and
PC205, all running at 160 MHz, this adds up to nearly 160 GIPS even
before specialist wireless accelerators for functions such as Turbo
and Viterbi decoding and cryptography are taken into account.
picoChip's President and CEO, Guillaume d'Eyssautier, commented,
"Customer adoption and business generated by the success of our
current PC102 processor array have enabled us to invest in this new
generation of products. Since it went into volume production over a
year ago, the PC102's proven track record, combining outstanding
performance with the highest MIPs/$ ratio on the market, has
established it as the industry standard processor for WiMAX. We are
confident that the PC20x family will build on this strong foundation
and extend the company's success into other application areas."
picoChip provides software defined radio solutions to the key
challenges of cost, development time and flexibility for the next
generation of wireless systems. The company's multi-core processors
deliver a world-beating price/performance combination. picoChip has
achieved design wins with numerous major companies. Uniquely, the
company also delivers complete, standard-compliant reference designs
for UMTS (HSDPA, upgradeable to HSUPA) and WiMAX/WiBRO (both 802.16d
and 802.16e, with support for AAS and MIMO). WiMAX systems using
picoChip are available from Airspan, Intel, Ericsson, Nortel, Marconi
and a number of other manufacturers. The PC102 picoArray is also being
used to develop other advanced wireless protocols such as 802.20 and
TD-SCDMA, and in 4G research.
About picoChip
picoChip, located in Bath, England, is dedicated to providing
innovative, flexible wireless solutions to help equipment makers
minimize time-to-market, costs, and system power consumption.
At the heart of the company's offering is a scaleable,
multi-processor baseband IC that combines the computational density of
a dedicated ASIC with the programmability of a traditional high end
Digital Signal Processor. The picoChip technology platform includes
tools, development boards and reference designs, and proven IP for
seamless integration with the radio frequency elements of a base
station. Equipment based on picoChip technology will enable telecom
operators to remotely re-configure and upgrade their equipment without
the high costs of replacing obsolete hardware.
picoChip currently has a development team with a balanced mix of
hardware and software engineers of outstanding ability and experience;
spanning such diverse fields as communications system design, software
development, computer architecture, digital signal processing, RF
design, and silicon design.
The company was founded in September 2000 and is backed by AT&T,
SEP, Rothschild, Intel Capital, Pond Venture Partners and Atlas
Venture.
Contact:
Publitek Limited for picoChip
Oliver Davies, +44 (0)1225 470 000
Email Contact
www.publitek.com
or
picoChip Designs Limited
Rupert Baines, +44 (0)1225 469 744
Email Contact
www.picoChip.com
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