Mindspeed Announces Next Generation Transcede SoCs for Metro and Premium Enterprise Small Cell Applications

The Mindspeed small cell SoC portfolio now covers the complete range of small cells, from cost-effective residential femtocells through low-cost enterprise, high performance enterprise and picocell through to high-performance metrocells. The new products support dual-mode capability, allowing both LTE (either LTE FDD or TD-LTE) as well as simultaneous 3G (either HSPA or TD-SCDMA), leveraging the former Picochip technology. Significantly, they support 3GPP Release 10 (LTE-A) and have a roadmap to Release 12 (LTE-B).

The third generation of the Transcede family is fabricated in 28nm process and provides four times the baseband performance of the 32nm second-generation Transcede devices (T2200 and T3300), which are shipping today for carrier deployment. These products are ideally suited for full featured smart enterprise small cells and metrocells serving high-capacity usage in dense urban areas and rural deployments. The T3400 supports 200 LTE users and 64 HSPA+ users, with 2x2MIMO with 40MHz channels. The higher performing T4400 supports up to 400 plus users in LTE mode and 128 users in HSPA+ mode, and is capable of 4x4 MIMO with 80MHz channels. For HSPA+ the devices support dual-carrier (DC) and Soft Handover (SHO). The new Transcede family is architected to support not just the current LTE-A standards, including carrier aggregation, but the upcoming standards, LTE-B / LTE-HI with even higher data rates and more complex signal processing. LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) describes Release 10 and 11 while the terms LTE-B and LTE-HI (LTE-Hotspot/Indoor) have both been used about Releases 12 and 13.

All of the devices in the Transcede family are based on industry-standard cores. They integrate CEVA-XC4000
DSP cores, multiple clusters of ARM Cortex-A15 processors with symmetric multi-processing (SMP), together with hardware accelerators and co-processors. The third generation Transcede shares the architecture with previous generations of the Transcede and maintains software compatibility, allowing it to leverage the field-hardened Mindspeed internally developed PHY and partner developed stack-software. This accelerates system manufactures development time, reduces technology risk and enables service providers to quickly ramp new small cell deployments. Importantly, Mindspeed's scalable, software-compatible architecture features available headroom for developers to include unique value-added software. This enables customers to leverage their R&D investment across multiple small cell markets to serve demanding new applications, while delivering differentiated products.

Mindspeed has demonstrated its ability to move quickly, in support of a broad variety of small cells, commented Joe Madden, principal analyst at Mobile Experts. Meanwhile, the market is moving ahead quickly toward strong demand for high-capacity small cells. Trials and early deployments during 2013 will have lasting impact on SoC market share for the next five years. Our forecast predicts rapid adoption of dual-mode and multi-mode small cells, so the companies with highly integrated SoCs and with experience in the field will rise to the top.

The clusters of ARM Cortex- A15 processors in the Transcede platform provide higher performance at lower power and can support both the increased throughput and lower latency demands of next generation LTE Metro small cells, said Ian Ferguson, vice president, segment marketing at ARM. By tuning the number of ARM Cortex A-15 cores on their SOCs, Mindspeed is providing equipment vendors with a scalable, deterministic platform to meet the increasingly complex demands of base band processing while maintaining the flexibility to support future requirements for content delivery at the edge of the network.

Mindspeed has been at the forefront of small cell innovation with their Transcede product line since its inception, and their latest SoC targeting LTE-Advanced microcells and metrocells continues their strong momentum, said Gideon Wertheizer, CEO of CEVA. The T3400 and T4400 leverage our CEVA-XC4000 DSP to enable a software-based architecture for small cells, offering carriers a seamless transition to implement next generation multi-mode HSPA+/LTE/LTE-A networks.

Once more, we have demonstrated Mindspeed's small cell SoC leadership. Our small cell product line now spans from very cost-effective residential to high-performing public access metro-class base stations, said Dr. Naser Adas, senior vice president and general manager of the wireless infrastructure business unit at Mindspeed. Today our products are shipping to carriers for HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, LTE FDD and TD-LTE. With the new products, we will also enable small cells with LTE-A and a roadmap to LTE-B / LTE-HI.

Mindspeed's small cell SoC portfolio is the leader in the industry, in both commercial and technological terms. Mindspeed is one of the first small cell SoC companies to have LTE systems commercially deployed, and has 34 LTE small cell design engagements. Last week Mindspeed announced that it has 63% share of the 3GPP small cell market according to data from Infonetics Research.

The T4400 and T3400 will sample in the fourth calendar quarter of 2013.

Mindspeed will be hosting small cell technology demonstrations for service providers, OEM customers, press and analysts during Mobile World Congress 2013 at stand 7E.104 from February 25 - 28, 2013 at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain.