Agilent Technologies and Silicon Hive to Demonstrate Programmable Digital Radio-Frequency Processing at 2010 Mobile World Congress

Agilent Technologies announced it will demonstrate with Silicon Hive B.V. completely flexible digital radio-frequency processing for UMTS. The demonstration will be at the 2010 Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 15-19, hospitality suite 3.1HS115. The demonstration will feature Agilent's vector signal generator and signal analyzer with Silicon Hive's HiveFlex CSP2500-based programmable digital RF processing for UMTS.

Silicon Hive's HiveFlex CSP2500 processor IP supports fully C-programmable multi-standard and multi-band transceiver platforms used on mobile smart phones and Internet devices. The processor builds on a scalable heterogeneous array architecture, exploiting both thread-level and VLIW parallelism. The architecture includes a unique post-silicon, configurable switch matrix, which allows licensees to complement the array processor at any point in the stream processing flow with hard-wired accelerators.

Agilent's flexible ESG-C platform is a key component of the UMTS programmable, digital, RF-transmit demonstration, said Renaud Duverne, wireless R&D marketing initiative manager, Agilent. We will demonstrate how designers can perform tests at the digital and RF levels. We also will show how the MXA is the ultimate analyzer for troubleshooting signals and analyzing any wireless standard, from 2G to 3.9G. Our complete digital/RF test capability is designed to support the complete 3G/UMTS product lifecycle.

This exciting display of the world's first programmable UMTS digital RF demonstration using Agilent's test equipment shows the unmatched performance of Silicon Hive's parallel processing technology, said Ingolf Held, director of marketing, Silicon Hive. This unique IP solution supports novel RF IC architectures for cellular and connectivity devices by combining the advantages of programmability -- such as faster time-to-market, field upgradability, and easy product differentiation for global offerings -- with the silicon performance of hardwired implementations.

The demonstration includes an Agilent N5102A Digital Signal Interface Module that provides digital inputs to an Agilent E4438C vector signal generator used for up-converting the digital signals provided by the HiveFlex CSP2500. The RF-modulated, calibrated signals are then shown on an Agilent N9020A MXA signal analyzer.