picoChip's femtocell and 4G capability shown at Mobile World Congress ‘09

In a key third-party development, Cambridge Consultants Limited (CCL) launched a comprehensive GSM solution based on the company’s products.

picoChip’s PC8219 is a complete baseband solution for eight-user HSPA femtocells designed to run on its established PC202-10 processor chip and announced at MWC ‘09. Two of the company’s lead customers are development partners for the product.
The PC302 serves more cost-sensitive residential applications. It is the first in the PC3xx series of devices, encapsulating four years of development and field testing into a highly integrated system-on-chip solution.

According to Nigel Toon, president and CEO at picoChip: “Small cells are a crucial part of networks in the future. picoChip has consistently delivered technology to enable 3G femtocells that solve operators’ most pressing problems. Our software reference designs were the industry’s first to support HSDPA and HSUPA, features we have extended to our low-cost PC302 system-on-chip.
“This week we showed our approach can be extended even further, to both 2G and 4G. We have stretched our leadership position in HSPA with the announcement of the industry’s first HSPA femtocell solution to serve eight users - a top priority for network operators looking to serve business customers.”

On show at the picoChip stand were demonstrations of WiMAX, in collaboration with Kisan Telecom; of TD-LTE, in association with ASTRI and Agilent; and of FDD LTE, working with mimoOn. Sagem Communications, a partner in the femtocell market with Alcatel-Lucent, also played a key role at the picoChip stand with a demonstration of a rich “service enabled” 3G femtocell integrated with a home gateway and HDTV set-top box.
The exhibition halls were abuzz with femtocell announcements, including the unveiling by previously-disclosed picoChip customer Ubiquisys of a residential gateway product that incorporates 3G femtocell technology, WiFi and DSL; and ipAccess’s announcement of their nano 3G picocell for offices and shops. In all more than 20 companies demonstrated products based on picoChip technology.

The new CCL GSM solution, designated Centaur, is a comprehensive GSM/GPRS/EDGE/E-EDGE physical layer (PHY) reference design implemented on a picoChip picoArray device. “Femtocell development to date has focused on 3G and 4G technologies, but this product dramatically extends that, enabling low-cost basestations and femtocells for the high-volume GSM market,” said Nigel Toon. “The technology can be used for GSM-only femtocells (for example for low-power GSM licensees); for dual-mode WCDMA/GSM femtocells; or even as a low-cost macrocell for economical wide area coverage in rural areas or developing countries.”

picoChip took an active role in other femtocell-oriented activities at MWC ’09. The company’s VP Marketing, Rupert Baines, delivered a presentation in the FemtoZone outlining how femtocells are expanding in scope to serve multiple applications. The FemtoZone, a joint initiative between the Femto Forum and the GSMA, provided a single point of information at MWC ’09 for issues relevant to femtocells.