Semiconductor industry's first: PHY SoC for 5GNR/LTE small cell Open RAN radio
Date: 06/11/2023
5G open RAN baseband semiconductor and software specialist Picocom launched semiconductor chip indstry's first SoC optimised for 5G small cell Open RAN radio units (O-RUs). The PC805 small-footprint, low-power SoC supports flexible RF/bandwidth mapping and can be used for designing enterprise, industrial, neutral host and private networks. Packaged in a 17mm x 17mm FC LFBGA Flip-Chip BGA, PC805 chip significantly reduced bill of materials compared to current designs, claims Picocom.
This chip interface directly with O-Dus via Open Fronthaul (split 7.2) and supports seamless connections to RFICs with a standardised JESD204B high-speed serial interface. PC805 is shipped with a fully integrated O-RAN compliant Picocom 5G NR RU and M-plane software suite.
The key features include:
Picocom’s 5GNR and LTE low PHY software
O-RAN eCPRI Open Fronthaul interface
On-chip supervisor Linux CPU for M-plane, S-plane processing, and radio control
Fourier transforms: FFT, iFFT
Digital Front End (DFE)
Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD)
Crest Factor Reduction (CFR)
Simple cascade mode for eCPRI use cases
PRACH processing
IQ compression/decompression
Secure on-chip boot capability
Debug and device monitoring
The key interfaces include:
High speed 4-lane JESD204B radio interface
10/25Gbps eCPRI Open Fronthaul including support for 10Gbase-T copper
10.137/12.165/24.33 Gbit/s CPRI Interface
2x SPI and up to 48 timed GPIO interfaces
2x 12C, 3x UART and 100M Ethernet Debug interfaces
Synchronisation and clock interfaces: SyncE, IEEE1588v2 and GNSS
LPDDR4 external RAM
QSPI flash
fabless semiconductor RF component supplier iCana and Picocom are strategically partnered in jointly developing a 5G Open RAN Small Cell radio unit reference platform.
Below are some more details and expert comments from the Picocom's release:
Peter Claydon, President of Picocom, said, “Most existing O-RU products are based on FPGA technology, necessitating a hardware redesign approach to address different use cases. Unlocking these new opportunities requires a more focused approach, where new use cases can be accommodated with simple software changes. That’s why I’m thrilled to introduce Picocom’s optimised yet flexible SoC for small cell radio units. PC805 will empower a new era of small cell deployments, answering the increasing calls from customers for more carrier aggregation and flexible spectrum utilisation.”
Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence, noted, “Our research shows that operators see Open RAN as a strategic priority, with 5G – and 5G-Advanced – acting as a trigger for rethinking how networks are built. Optimised and readily available silicon is critical for the success of Open RAN, with a diverse set of sources being best for the industry. It’s good to see companies delivering optimised silicon for small cells, which are particularly important for neutral host and private network deployments along with network densification exercises.”
Oliver Davies, VP of Marketing at Picocom, added, “As 5G deployments progress, operators want to aggregate spectrum from different bands. This is especially true for neutral host operators, who often need to support the frequency allocations of several mobile operators or aggregate non-contiguous channels in shared spectrum. PC805 supports these use cases with a minimum of additional components, greatly reducing both capital and operating costs. Simply put, take PC805, add RF and a power supply, and you will have an O-RU!”
PC805 can perform aggregation of four or more 4T4R carriers in a 200 MHz instantaneous bandwidth (IBW), applicable for operation in the US CBRS and equivalent bands that are increasingly becoming available in other countries (for example, UK band n77 shared access band). A single PC805 can also support multiple bands, including both TDD and FDD for both 5G NR and LTE, with a cascade of two SoCs doubling the bandwidth supported.
PC805 launches with a complete software suite and a companion RU Demonstrator Board, the PC805RDB, to ease development and accelerate time-to-market. The PC805RDB is a flexible 5G NR/LTE Radio Unit board used to demonstrate the PC805 SoC with an onboard RF transceiver, front-end and associated support circuitry, and software. The PC805RDB integrates a Texas Instruments (TI) AFE7769D 4T4R RFIC, complete with an RF front end, based on an iCana demonstrator design.
For more information on PC805 or to download the product brief, visit picocom.com/products/socs/pc805
News Source: Picocom
