TOKYO: Freescale Semiconductor and ArrayComm LLC. have developed a reference design intended to speed and simplify the creation of high-performance WiMAX base station equipment. The solution combines ArrayComm's multi antenna signal processing software (A-MAS) with Freescale's high-performance MSC8144 quad-core digital signal processor.

The reference design leverages the high performance of the MSC8144 DSP to handle both Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) processing. Equipment based on the solution is optimized to deliver high frequencies, superior channel density and low operating costs.

"While baseline profiles and certification waves are a good start, even greater performance gains can be achieved by leveraging ArrayComm's software," said Steve Sifferman, president of ArrayComm. "The end result of this collaboration allows our customers to profit from our ability to fully utilize the advanced processing power, versatility and features of Freescale's DSP technology to create our highly advanced signal processing algorithms in wireless broadband network economics."

Compared with current generations of WiMAX base station equipment systems, products based on the combined solution are expected to offer two to four times greater coverage, more than doubled data rates, and as much as a fourfold increase in capacity for 802.16/WiMAX networks. The reference design meets the IEEE 802.16e standard and conforms to the WiMAX Forum Wave 2 base profile.

ArrayComm's A-MAS software offers unique support of multiple input/multiple output (MIMO), adaptive antenna system (AAS) and combined MIMO/AAS modes. It incorporates all the antenna processing aspects of the WiMAX profiles approved by the WiMAX Forum Mobile Task Group for IEEE 802.16e. A-MAS leverages more than 14 years of ArrayComm experience in commercial multi antenna signal processing applications, yielding a software solution that accelerates development of advanced base station products and reduces technical risk. The enhanced performance of the A-MAS enabled network equipment can vastly improve the OPEX and CAPEX bottom line and ensure favorable business cases for WiMAX service providers.

The MSC8144 DSP is based on StarCore DSP technology and is designed to reduce system cost and improve performance for intensive network processing. Addressing industry requirements for consolidation and reuse, the MSC8144 DSP takes single chip integration to new levels, embedding four multiple-issue 1GHz StarCore DSP cores and integrating one of the industry's highest density embedded DSP memories at 10.5Mbytes, a security coprocessor, RISC engines and an abundance of high speed networking interfaces, while maintaining highly competitive cost and power ratios.

"The high-performance programmable processing of the MSC8144 DSP allows OEMs to use the same device, hardware platform and tools for multiple applications by using differentiated software loads," said Jeff Timbs, director of marketing for Freescale's Networking Systems Divison. "The combination of the MSC8144's processing performance with ArrayComm's multi antenna software offers significant savings on development time, decreased base station costs and performance benefits for a new generation of broadband wireless infrastructure equipment."