Xilinx's Zynq-7030 SoC now powers Mobilicom's MCU-30 SDR

SAN JOSE, USA: Xilinx, Inc. announced that at the heart of Mobilicom's new MCU-30 software-defined radio (SDR) is Xilinx's Zynq-7030 All Programmable System-on-a-Chip (SoC), a member of Xilinx's Zynq-7000 family.

Mobilicom's MCU-30 SDR is a very small, flexible, light-weight, battery-powered wireless radio that can be embedded into a wide variety of devices - from security cameras to public safety - to provide broadband connectivity for disaster relief, surveillance, military and other mission-critical applications.

Due to its support in multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna diversity for better multipath performance, multiple operating frequency bands, on-the-move communication, and multi-hop capability for extended communication range, the MCU-30 SDR can be used to provide seamless communication anywhere without the need of any commercial wireless infrastructure.

Yossi Segal, VP of R&D at Mobilicom said: "The combination of digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities, ARM processor-based performance and reprogrammable logic made Xilinx's Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC the obvious choice as the core of our new MCU-30 SDR."

"Not only does it meet the programmable systems integration requirements of the MCU-30 SDR, but it has also helped us to speed product development and achieve a lower bill-of-materials (BOM) compared to a multi-chip ASIC or ASSP design," added Segal.

In addition, the exceptionally low power requirements of the Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC enabled us to maximize battery life, which is especially critical for public safety and other mobile applications, he added.

Mobilicom's design engineers used the Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC as the heart of its MCU-30 SDR platform to develop a custom advanced wireless networking protocol without the major expense and risk of custom ASIC development.

By taking advantage of the Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC's ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore processing system with tightly coupled programmable logic on a single die, Mobilicom's design team developed a solution with a robust and adaptive ad-hoc wireless networking protocol using an LTE PHY and their custom MAC and Layer 2 software.

"Our success with Mobilicom is another example of the great fit Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs provides for public safety radio applications," said Yousef Khalilollahi, senior director of business segments at Xilinx.

"By integrating processors, DSP and reprogrammable logic onto a single device with small form factor and low power, the Zynq-7000 family is a natural fit for the public safety radio systems design requirements."