TMS320C66x and ARM Cortex-A8 based SoCs
for multistandard basestations of any size
Texas Instruments Incorporated has unveiled the TMS320TCI6612
and TMS320TCI6614, System-on-Chips (SoCs) for developers
of metro, pico and enterprise small cell base stations.
Based on TI's keyStone multicore architecture, these scalable
SoCs consists of processing elements including radio accelerators,
network and security coprocessors, combined fixed- and floating-point
digital signal processors (DSPs) and an ARM RISC processor
to handle layers 1, 2 and 3 and transport processing for
high performance small cell base stations.
"Intelligent small cells are the future of public-space
mobile data, but their self-organizing capabilities and
high traffic environments place huge demands on processing
power," said Chris Gilbert, CEO, Ubiquisys. "TI's
small cell solution combines dual-mode 3G/LTE flexibility
with massive processing power, and harnesses their unparalleled
expertise in powering macro networks. We found a true roadmap
partner in TI, not just a silicon vendor."
The TCI6612 and TCI6614's processing elements include
two or four TMS320C66x fixed- and floating-point DSP cores,
as well as a power efficient ARM Cortex-A8 RISC processor.
The ARM core is typically used for control plane processing.
The remaining base station functions, including all baseband
and packet processing, are handled by the DSP cores coupled
with configurable wireless, network and security coprocessors.
"As the mobile market continues to grow, the underlying
infrastructure is experiencing greater pressures associated
with form factor, performance and power consumption,"
said Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing, ARM.
"Texas Instruments' use of the ARM Cortex-A8 provides
new levels of energy efficiency and higher performance to
the small cell base station market."
The TCI6612 and TCI6614 SoCs are code compatible with TI's
entire KeyStone multicore portfolio, as well the TMS320C64x
DSP generation, ensuring all previous software investments
made by TI customers can be reused.
The TCI6612 and TCI6614 SoCs offers set of features for
the development of high performance small cell base stations,
including: full LTE and HSPA+ data rate support, programmable
capacity for spectrum optimization and enhanced coverage
with high data rate mobility.
The TCI6612 and TCI6614 SoCs feature network coprocessors,
which offload the processing of intensive functions typically
performed by DSPs. This frees up MIPS for differentiating
features.
"It's heartening to see that TI doesn't view reaching
the limits of Shannon's Law as "fait accompli,"
said Stephane Teral, principal analyst of mobile and FMC
infrastructure, Infonetics Research. "With their new
small cell SoCs, TI has shown again the ability of the KeyStone
architecture to unleash processing power for the issues
operators care about. Spectral efficiency matters as much
in small cells as in macro cells. TI just gets it."
By using equipment based on these chips telecom service
operators can go for offering parallel execution of two
standards supporting deployments such as WCDMA and LTE in
a single base station. The TCI6612 and TCI6614 SoCs are
pin and software compatible, offering manufacturers complete
flexibility in designing simultaneous dual-mode and multistandard
base stations supporting all major 2G, 3G and 4G systems
including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, FDD-LTE and
TDD-LTE.
Availability: The TCI6612 and TCI6614 SoCs will
begin sampling in 3Q11. Solutions incorporating a digital
radio front end will follow. In addition, Azcom Technology
currently offers a small cell base station platform to kick-off
development.
Learn more at www.ti.com/c66multicore
