DSPs address multi-mode connectivity for M2M & IoT

18th November 2015

CEVA Inc

Nat Bowers

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CEVA has introduced two power- and cost-optimised communication processors designed to address the growing demand for multi-mode connectivity solutions for M2M applications and the IoT. The CEVA-XC5 and CEVA-XC8 DSP vector processors are the smallest and most power-efficient members of the CEVA-XC architecture, supporting the full range of emerging cellular protocols such as LTE MTC Cat-1, Cat-0 or Cat-M, as well as the suite of LPWAN standards such as Lora, SigFox and Ingenu.

In addition, the processors are highly optimised to deal with other IoT-related communication standards, including WiFi 802.11n, PLC, 802.15.4g, ZigBee/Thread, GNSS or any emerging protocols such as NB-IoT and Wi-Fi 802.11ah. Target applications include wearalone wearables, smart grid, surveillance systems, asset tracking, remote monitoring systems, connected cars and smart utilities.

Linley Gwennap, Principal Analyst, The Linley Group, commented: "Designers of multi-standard, low data rate LTE-capable devices have two priorities: minimising cost and power. With the CEVA-XC5 and CEVA-XC8, CEVA has leveraged its industry-leading position in communications DSPs to deliver the small die size and high power efficiency that these designers need for IoT and other applications.”

The CEVA-XC5 and CEVA-XC8 deliver exemplary power efficiency for even the most cost-, power- and die-size-constrained devices thanks to improvements in the CEVA-XC architecture that have resulted in a 20% memory size reduction and the capability to allow multiple PHYs and MACs to run concurrently on the same processor with much reduced overhead. Specifically, the CEVA-XC5 DSP is 40% smaller than any previous generation CEVA-XC processor and deploys an IoT-optimised Power Scaling Unit (PSU) which enables it to achieve up to 70% lower dynamic power consumption. This power reduction is a result of specialised elements within the PSU which allow the DSPs to take advantage of new Cat-0 and Cat-M features such as Power Saving Mode (PSM) and long DRX.

Michael Boukaya, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Business Unit, CEVA, said: “The introduction of our CEVA-XC5 and CEVA-XC8 DSPs enables our customers to develop modems for IoT and M2M applications with outstanding power and area characteristics and a very long service life. These latest additions to the CEVA-XC family build on our long heritage with DSPs for communication processing and mark another important step in our strategy to enable everything ‘smart and connected’.”

The CEVA-XC5 and CEVA-XC8 DSPs come with complete DSP, LTE and legacy cellular software libraries, as well as a unified software development environment. The processors are available for licensing today and are already in design for low power wireless platforms.

On December 15^th CEVA will host a live webinar, Low Power LTE for IoT: Ubiquitous Coverage with Extended Battery Life, which will include an introduction to how the CEVA-XC DSPs support the latest low data rate LTE standards. Register for the webinar here.