MIPS cellular boost with femtocell design win

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: MIPS Technologies Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard architectures, processors and analog IP for digital consumer, home networking, wireless, communications and business applications, announced that fabless semiconductor startup Percello licensed its 24Kc high-performance processor core for next-generation femtocell base station applications.

Femtocells provide the voice and data services of a basestation but with the deployment simplicity of a WiFi access point. This emerging technology is quickly gaining traction in providing low-cost, fully integrated handset services for residential and small business environments.

According to Forward Concepts, global femtocell equipment revenues are forecast to grow from 2008 at a CAGR of 126 percent to $4.9 billion in 2012, and semiconductor revenue from both standalone and integrated home gateway femtocells will grow from 2008 at a CAGR of 138 percent to more than $1.5 billion in 2012.

"Femtocells are poised to change the nature of mobile networks, combining all the functionality of a 3G mobile cell site into one compact device," said Shlomo Gadot, CEO, Percello. "In a high-volume market like femtocells, getting the right balance of price, power and performance is critical. We chose MIPS Technologies’ 24Kc core because it offers the best possible solution. Driven by the 24Kc core, our next-generation chipset will be the most advanced solution for femtocell basebands, cost-effectively combining the most advanced feature set with an unmatched level of integration"

"The emerging global femtocell market is experiencing tremendous growth, and Percello is at the heart of that growth with its unique Aquilo chipset family" said Brad Holtzinger, vice president of worldwide sales at MIPS Technologies. "MIPS Technologies’ cores are designed into the majority of products for the digital home. Now, as femtocells bring mobile phones into the digital home, this relationship expands our presence in the cellular market as well"

Low-power 24Kc cores offer 700 MHz worst-case performance in a 65nm process, and offer the best combination of performance, power and density of any midrange synthesizable CPU in the industry. They are ideal for home entertainment applications as well as portable, battery-powered consumer devices.