Texas Instruments Propels 3G Deployments

TI's Latest Wireless Infrastructure Solution Eliminates FPGA/ASICs

Texas Instruments Incorporated today announced the industry's most highly integrated digital signal processor (DSP) targeted toward Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) base stations. This new three-core DSP, running at 1GHz per core, supports all of the necessary baseband functions required for a macro base station - on a single chip. Designed specifically to solve problems at a system level, this "baseband on a chip" eliminates the need for FPGAs, ASICs and other bridging devices, reducing the total bill of materials for OEMs by up to a factor of five, resulting in lowered equipment costs for service providers. For additional information, please visit: www.ti.com/civision.

"Given the number of baseband processing requirements, many industry experts agree that W-CDMA is one of the more complex wireless air interfaces, especially considering the growing demand for High Speed Packet Access and advanced features such as interference cancellation and beam forming," said Jagdish Rebello, senior analyst with iSuppli Corporation. "This device addresses the needs of the burgeoning W-CDMA market and could help OEMs bring to market smarter and cost-effective base stations."

Optimized to Meet Needs and Deliver Key Functions

The 3GHz-performing TMS320TCI6488 is based on TI's industry leading TMS320C64x+TM platform. The processing power of the C64x+ DSP provides dynamic support of both voice and data transmission with extremely low latency, ensuring a quality experience for consumers and service providers alike. For example, in High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) applications, the TCI6488 can support 48 users per device in a macro base station system.

Besides the Viterbi (VCP2) and Turbo (TCP2) Coprocessors, the TCI6488 also has the built-in capability designed to support W-CDMA intensive calculations. Specifically, the TCI6488 can handle search and rake receiver on chip, typically two of the most computationally intensive tasks in W-CDMA.

With a highly efficient memory system and fast access to off-chip memory via a DDR-2 interface, the TCI6488 ensures system-level performance. The Serial RapidIO interface incorporated directly on the TCI6488 allows base station designers to easily move data across the system fabric, with little supervision or intervention required from the processor. Moreover, OEMs can scale their solutions across a variety of architectures and form factors, and ensure interface compatibility with several other devices.

The TCI6488 includes both OBSAI and CPRI W-CDMA standardized antenna interfaces on chip. These high speed antenna interfaces support up to 48 antenna streams per base station, allowing for multi-sector, multi-antenna base stations that can support a high density of users over large coverage areas.

The inclusion of the Gigabit Ethernet port on the TCI6488 for network interface, as well as analysis and debugging, brings together the last piece of the hardware puzzle in providing a single-chip end-to-end digital solution for base stations.

From a software standpoint, the TCI6488 solution includes optimized libraries for W-CDMA. These libraries enable higher channel density as well as lower power per channel. Developed and tested within TI's carrier-class environment, this inclusion of this software allows base station manufacturers to focus on their own system-level software. TI's ability to provide a complete hardware and software product, lowers OEM investment costs and speeds their time to market - Texas Instruments.