picoChip recently announced a family of complete reference designs that extends its offering to cover both fixed WiMAX (802.16-2004) and mobile WiMAX (802.16e and WiBRO) for mobile station and base station designs. According to picoChip, it is the only company to offer a full range of systems in this way: the first to offer reference designs for 802.16e; the first to support both 802.16d and 802.16e; and the first to deliver the advanced options of the standard.

These reference designs are a complete implementation of a Base Station or Mobile Station, including PHY, MAC, radio (via partners), hardware designs and management software. They are participating in WiMAX Forum Plugfest (interoperability) and CETECOM certification processes.

The designs are compatible with all aspects of the WiMAX specifications and are fully upgradeable, whether for new versions of the standard or for advanced features such as active antenna systems (AAS) and multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems. All four software versions run on the picoChip PC102 processor, which is in volume production.

The new PC6530 is a software-only upgrade to the existing PC6520 reference design for 802.16d base stations that adds the capability to support the new 802.16e standard—to suit fixed, nomadic and mobile applications—as well as working with options for Korea (WiBRO) and China.

The PC6620 is a new reference design for 802.16d subscriber stations. The design is particularly useful for specialist applications that demand better performance than standard chipsets can offer. As with the PC6520, the new design is software-upgradeable: completing the range, the PC6630 adds support for OFDMA and 802.16e for mobile stations.

The systems offer a range of features that include multi-user subchannelization for 802.16d, multiple subcarrier allocation modes for 802.16e, STC (space time coding) and antenna diversity, as well as providing an upgrade path to deliver AAS or MIMO.

RSS    Save to Del.icio.us  Digg This