Wireless modem hardware solutions from Coresonic enable quick addition of IEEE802.16

Coresonic AB, a provider of leading-edge baseband processor technology optimized for next generation multimode wireless modems, has announced the first of a series of complete hardware solutions which will allow semiconductor manufacturers to quickly and cost-effectively implement WiMax functionality into their semiconductor devices. The new WiMax ‘personality pack’, based on the company’s LeoCore programmable baseband processor technology, provides complete IEEE802.16 functionality, from the RF interface through to the central processor interface.

This personality pack is the first of a number of complete hardware solutions that Coresonic will be developing – other solutions will be announced for LTE, mobile media, short range communications, high speed short range communications, as well as legacy cellular systems.

Rick Clucas, CEO of Coresonic, said, “We have already spoken to a number of semiconductor companies and the main feedback we are receiving from them is that no other licensable solution appears to come close to our solution in terms of size and power consumption – in fact, some instruction caches are as large as our complete baseband processor solution!” He added, “Recently a number of companies have made announcements in the market of WiMax/DVB-T or DVB-T/H solutions, that we estimate are approximately 4 to10 times the size of our solution.”

Commenting on the market challenge for programmable baseband processors, Rick Clucas says, “OEMs are looking for a complete product which is low power and low cost – not lots of power hungry chips. The IP business model that we have chosen together with the personality packs for different standards is the only way that we believe this challenge can be met rapidly and efficiently.”

Coresonic’s WiMax personality pack supports the mobile WiMax 802.16e-2005 mobile system profile rev 1.4, which will support other modes such as 802.16d and 802.16j. The pack performs everything from ADC/DAC interface to FEC, including digital front-end signal conditioning, synchronization, MIMO channel estimation/compensation, error correction and chase combing. All blocks provided enable a complete solution from the RF interface to interfacing to a CPU (central processor) to run the MAC layer; the processing intensive elements are implemented in hardware to minimize the load on the MAC CPU.

Coresonic AB delivers the most silicon and area efficient solutions for next generation modem applications enabling its customers to quickly add WiMax, LTE, DVB-T/H, ISDP-T, T-DMB, DAB or 802.11 functionality to their own products. This is achieved using the company’s unique patented programmable baseband processor technology optimized for WiMAX and 4G wireless modems.

Proven in silicon and delivered as semiconductor intellectual property, its patented LeoCore multimode modem technology can be rapidly integrated with the supplied protocol specific firmware to meet rapidly changing wireless standards as they evolve for all types of mobile wireless devices – from mobile phones and PDAs to wireless networking and digital broadcasting. Founded in 2004 from the research center Stringent at Linköping University, Sweden, Coresonic is headquartered in Sweden. Read more at www.coresonic.com.