picoChip establishes Beijing design centre

This expansion builds on the base provided by picoChip’s established relationships and local operations. These include a highly-productive partnership with WSPN-BUPT (Wireless Signal Processing & Network Lab, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications), focused on developing wireless systems based on TD-SCDMA and commercial WiMAX systems optimised for the Chinese market. A similar collaboration with the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a world leader in network software and protocol stacks, has already produced software technology which is in use by picoChip’s customers worldwide.

“This is a significant step for us: as our business grows worldwide, we are growing our development strength,” said Guillaume d’Eyssautier, president and CEO at picoChip. “It is no coincidence that China was the site of our first external development operation; this expansion takes us a step further in our commitment to Chinese technology and to the Chinese market - the world’s most significant for wireless. This is especially timely with the approaching launch of TD-SCDMA services.”

picoChip has been working in China since early 2003, when it established a partnership – in the form of a joint development centre – with Millennium Meshwork Data Systems Co., Ltd. (MMDS). In September 2004 it opened its first China-based office in Shenzhen, not only enhancing its sales and support efforts, but also incorporating a development lab as the site of local engineering activities, including systems development for regional standards and research projects.

Yingbo Jiang, General Manager of at picoChip’s Beijing design centre, commented: “From the outset, picoChip’s philosophy has been to involve itself intimately, not just with the Chinese market, but also with the Chinese technical and scientific communities. This development centre will be responsible both for work on global standards such as WiMAX, but also developments for local technologies such as TD-SCDMA.”

Steve Lu, picoChip’s VP sales, Asia, added: “Taking an active role in the development of technology here has already paid dividends, as our people continue to demonstrate expertise and innovation to rival any region of the world in the fields of advanced wireless applications.”

picoChip provides software-defined radio solutions to address the key challenges of cost, development time and flexibility for the next generation of wireless systems. The company is the leading supplier of multi-core DSPs, delivering a world-beating price/performance combination. Uniquely, the company also delivers complete, standards-compliant reference designs for UMTS (HSDPA, upgradeable to HSUPA) and WiMAX/WiBro (both 802.16d and 802.16e, with support for AAS and MIMO). picoChip is the industry standard chipset for WiMAX infrastructure: 802.16-based systems using picoChip are available from Airspan, Intel, Ericsson, M/A-Com, Marconi, Nortel and a number of other manufacturers. The company also has strategic relationships with ETRI and Korea Telecom in Korea and both ICT and BUPT in China. picoChip technology is also being used to develop other 4G wireless protocols such as UMTS-LTE, 802.20 and TD-SCDMA.