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picoChip announces LTE femtocell reference design

Software-defined platform will allow upgrades as standard evolves

At the Berlin World LTE Summit, picoChip announced LTE (long-term evolution [of cellular services]) femtocell and picocell reference designs, the PC8608 Home eNodeB and PC8618 eNodeB respectively, as a development of the company’s work in femtocells. Both products can be combined with picoChip’s HSPA products and run on the same common hardware platform as the company’s industry-standard WiMAX reference designs. picoChip claims it is the only company shipping femtocell silicon.
The PC86xx LTE design runs on the same picoChip hardware platforms as the company’s industry standard WiMAX basestation reference designs. As in WiMAX, the family includes PHY and MAC and offers 5MHz and 10MHz solutions, supporting both TDD and FDD modes. The PHY runs on picoChip PC203 devices and includes OFDMA downlink and SC-FDMA uplink, with support for up to 2x2 MIMO and for AAS. The picoChip platform has been developed with partners mimoOn and Wintegra. As a software-defined solution, it is future-proof and can be upgraded as the LTE standard is refined and updated. The common platform also supports WiMAX, with Wave 2 and MIMO available now, and future support for AAS, Release 1.5 (FDD) and 16m.