Arasan bundles key bus interface IP for netbooks

MIPI, SDIO, SuperSpeed USB3.0, SD 3.0 and eMMC

 

Arasan Chip Systems is bundling together its IP portfolio as a complete set of solutions for the growing Netbook market. According to leading industry analysts, sales of Netbooks accelerated to 33 million units in 2009 and are anticipating a healthy growth in 2010, thus ensuring that OEMS cannot afford to ignore this segment.

IDC reported that while worldwide PC shipments increased by 15.2% in 2009, the US alone experienced a whopping 24% rise. This rise was 35% higher than earlier projections and IDC's research showed that it was fueled by consumer demand for Netbooks which increased their share to 20% of all consumer laptop shipments in the second half of 2009. The appeal of a Netbook lies in its compact yet feature-filled form-factor which implies a number of Bus interfaces. Efficient, low-pin count and low power interconnect is a vital part of the chipset infrastructure enabling Netbooks. IP solution providers such as Arasan Chip Systems thus become a valuable resource in enabling the integration of leading edge IP solutions to meet Time to Market goals for OEMs.

Arasan provides a complete solution for the major Bus Interfaces being used in Netbooks today such as MIPI, SDIO, SuperSpeed USB and memory, storage solutions based on SD 3.0 and eMMC. Arasan's domain expertise through early engagement with standard's bodies and leading edge customers, results in the high quality interface IP.

"Arasan has long invested in developing extensive protocol expertise which it leverages in the development and validation of its Bus IP portfolio," said Prakash Kamath, Vice-President of Engineering at Arasan. "Leading Netbook chip vendors rely on our expertise in optimizing their solutions to differentiate their offering. Arasan's engineering teams go beyond delivering and supporting IP - to a more consultative engagement with customers, enabling the technological adoption of leading interconnect standards. Our expanding portfolio now includes PHYs which are the crucial building block for implementing efficient interconnects."

 "The growing speed and complexity of Application Processors and importance of low-pin count and inter-operable interfaces compounds the difficulty faced by Netbook chip design teams," said Ram Gopalan, Senior Director of Marketing at Arasan. "Arasan is the only leading IP provider to deliver a complete solution, working with the customer to ease SoC integration and mitigate Time to Market considerations with its Total Solutions offering."

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Motorola Launches LTE Trial Network in the UK

Motorola has launched its next generation LTE trial network and testing lab in Swindon, UK.
The launch at the development labs was marked with a live, over the air, standards compliant LTE call during which high-speed data services were streamed using Motorola's LTE infrastructure operating in the 2.6GHz spectrum and a prototype LTE device.
This facilities offers operators the ability to engage in LTE technology field trials and detailed real-world equipment testing at the UK site. Additionally, Motorola can host the core elements of the LTE network for operators that require a hosted LTE trial in EMEA. The network and trial activity is fully supported by Motorola services, giving operators access to Motorola's expertise in deploying and optimizing OFDM-based mobile broadband networks as well as developing 4G migration strategies.
"Motorola is at the forefront of 4G development which will address the mobility demands of today's consumers who are looking for personalized media experiences and operators looking to lower their cost per bit and gain a competitive advantage," said Joe Cozzolino, senior vice president and general manager, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility, EMEA & Asia Pacific. "With our latest trial network we look forward to working closely with our customers in EMEA as they transition to LTE during 2009 and beyond."
Within its LTE lab in Swindon, UK, Motorola engineers work on LTE radio frequency and self organising network (SON) development. In addition, the site in Swindon remains a centre of excellence for Motorola base station transceiver (BTS) development for GSM and now LTE. Development of Motorola's LTE solutions is also conducted in Arlington Heights, Illinois; Fort Worth, Texas; Beijing, China and Bangalore, India.
Motorola's first commercial release of LTE solutions later this year will include products for the 700MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum bands and the company is engaged with operators in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region for LTE field trial activity.
LTE demo video is here

www.motorola.com/lte and www.motorola.com/experiencelte

Coresonic lays claim to world’s smallest and most efficient mobile WiMAX

Swedish IP vendor Coresonic has demonstrated its mobile WiMax core that it belives is the world’s smallest and most efficient WiMAX solution. It has shown the LeoCore WiMAX personality pack running on a new FPGA-based evaluation system to show how it is possible to add a complete mobile WiMAX solution to any device with just 1.5qs mm of silicon using a 65nm process.
The LeoCore multicore hardware and firmware can be added to any new chip design, such as media processors for digital cameras, application processors for UMD devices and other products.
"The performance and flexibility available from such a small and efficient system has to be seen to be believed," said Rick Clucas, CEO of Coresonic. "When we tell potential customers that they can add WiMAX connectivity with such little additional silicon and such low power, their immediate reaction is one of disbelief so they ask us to prove it; this is exactly what we will be doing with our WiMAX personality pack demo.”

“Some market commentators are suggesting that if WiMAX can be added to existing products for under $10, then the WiMAX market could take off rapidly. Others are indicating that LTE is the way forward. The key point with Coresonic’s solution is that our LeoCore technology can add WiMAX connectivity to any device with very little incremental cost and size. Secondly, because our solution is programmable, our customers will be able to quickly adapt their products to whatever standard they need to address by licensing new firmware such as LTE.”
Coresonic’s solution is available for license as semiconductor intellectual property and firmware, and the FPGA-evaluation platform is available for onsite demonstration or purchase. The demo system runs at 80MHz, enough to perform 5MHz single antenna WiMAX channels as well as other standards such as WiFi.
Full mobile WiMAX wave 2 solutions only require a maximum clock speed of 250MHz to run on LeoCore. Coupled with the very small gate count, even in a worst case scenario of constant full usage and no power management, the power consumption using Coresonic’s technology would still be less than 50mW in a 65nm process. When power management and real-life usage patterns are added, the actual figure would be a fraction of this, says Clucas.