Date: 14/12/2010

A new chip by Picochip supporting dual mode LTE/HSPA+

Picochip has launched picoXcell PC333 HSPA+ chip for an optimized dual-mode LTE/HSPA+ basestation. Picochip says in bringing together its industry-leading PC333 product for HSPA+ and its recently announced PC500 LTE platform, Picochip becomes the only company to offer an optimized solution for designers of dual mode (LTE and HSPA+) 'small cell' basestations.

"Many carriers and vendors are attracted by the cost advantages of femtocells and wish to benefit from the economies of scale enabled by standard silicon SoC, but also want to continue to support their centrally-managed Iub architecture for public access basestations," confirmed Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. "With the PC333 SoC and support for Iub, Picochip can address that desire. Moving to address the public access market is a logical next step for Picochip, and the femtocell ecosystem as a whole. Femtocells already outnumber conventional macrocells in the United States, meaning that Picochip's baseband is very widely deployed, proven and trusted."

"The improvement in carrier economics from the economies of scale of femto architectures is dramatic. Basestations using cost-effective commercial SoC platforms are moving out of the home and into enterprise, metropolitan and rural usage," said Rupert Baines, VP Marketing at Picochip, speaking at the Femtocell Americas conference (13 - 14 December, Miami, USA). "It doesn't matter if you describe them as femtocells, picocells or small cell basestations. What's important is the fact that the Picochip product portfolio addresses all these different segments, from cost-sensitive residential chips already shipping in very high volumes, through to high-performance public access, all with our field-proven, robust PHY. Adding support for Iub and LTE is part of that, with a path to an integrated single chip dual-mode basestation."

Editorial Product Rating: *** (HIgh Vaue)