Subject: [NEXTEL-1] One Standard for the World

From: Alan Dixon <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 16:47:46 +0000 (GMT)

Message from Alan Dixon: SDR Chip Technology...
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	One Standard for the World

MUENCHEN, Germany, November 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Innumerable committees are working on a global scale, defining and confirming new standards for next-generation applications. How can manufacturers of wireless mobile terminals that integrate voice, audio, video and data applications, with arithmetic performance and power consumption demands that surpass those provided by traditional microprocessors and DSPs, keep pace with the global standardization activity?

With the XPP Technology PACT offers a software-programmable platform, which gives manufacturers of integrated devices the required flexibility and dynamism in the development process. The XPP replaces costly ASIC developments in a variety of fields, hereby lowering the thresholds to new product variants and enabling a flexible customization of final products according to market demands.

XPP-based products are software-defined, permitting an adjustment of the finished product, shortening the time-to-market and thus reducing the total costs of the product.

Complete Global Mobility

Wireless mobile terminals as well as wireless infrastructure applications are best examples of the above-mentioned problem. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with wireless capabilities are already widespread today. Future wireless devices must adapt both dynamically to the local reception conditions and the differing communication standards, providing the capability to process large data streams of voice, audio, video and data. The XPP takes over the computation of all the wide-band data streams. A scenario can be as follows: The transmission standard available is loaded as a configuration into the processor -- within buildings, for instance, the OFDM decoder for Wireless LANs (HiperLan/2 or IEE802.11a). The fast reconfiguration of the processor permits it to load the modules required in each case dynamically. This is comparable to task switching in real time operating systems. The same XPP array is operated outside of buildings as a RAKE receiver for UMTS and/or W-CDMA. The necessary modules such as the Fourier transformation and demodulator are dynamically configurable in this case as well. On the application level, an XPP array as a coprocessor relieves the microprocessor of the computationally intensive tasks, represented by MPEG/JPEG and audio codecs. The computational performance of the main processor is thus at the user's disposal, providing for a comfortable operating environment by means of a graphical user interface.

So far, each separate application (e.g. transmission standard) in a mobile terminal required a dedicated ASIC that had to be developed and integrated into the equipment in the form of silicon space. Substantial development and production costs therefore defeated multi-standard mobile terminal devices. The XPP Technology enables a shift in the development of new devices away from hardware into pure software design.

The XPP Architecture

The XPP is a reconfigurable processor characterized by a patented set of features:

  -- Scaleable array of ALUs (4x4 to 8x8)
  -- Distributed RAM Blocks with integrated ALUs
  -- Packet-oriented communication network for data streams
  -- Particularly fast and data synchronous reconfiguration
  -- Conditional program branch handling
  -- Low power consumption

Only the combination of all these characteristics makes a reconfigurable processor actually programmable. For the program development no hardware design methods are necessary like the input using an HDL. In order to use the parallel characteristics of XPP optimally, the algorithm (e.g. the internal loop) should be present as a data flow graph. This graph is then mapped directly onto the array in the form of ALUs and RAM. The fast reconfiguration makes it possible to load and execute several graphs sequentially.

The Development Platform

PACT offers an integrated development platform for the design and verification of target systems. The platform is based on a PCI board integrating the following components:

  -- XPP64 -- A processor with an 8x8 Array and 16 RAM Blocks, 0.13 um CMOS
     technology
  -- Microcontroller (MIPS / ARM) with peripherals, RAM and flash
  -- 4 independent external SRAMs for the XPP
  -- Matrix for controlling the data streams
  -- High-Speed AD/DA Converter and FPDP Bus

  Systems such as

  -- Software Defined Radio (SDR)
  -- W-CDMA / DAB / DVB / IEE802.11x
  -- MPEG / JPEG Codecs
  -- Image Processing
  -- Pattern Recognition

can be simulated and verified by this platform. From this, custom-made XPP processors be ported as Intellectual Property (IP) on a final SoC. The integrated development software contains the tools for the microcontroller (MIPS/ARM) and the XPP Development Suite. Communication Libraries enable a comfortable communication between the individual components. Application Libraries e.g. for baseband processing and MPEG enable fast results.

The board will be available in the first quarter 2003. Application Libraries and the design tools with the software simulator are currently already available.

About PACT

PACT XPP Technologies is semiconductor IP, software tool and application software vendor. PACT has developed a unique reconfigurable architecture, which combines the performance of an ASIC with the flexibility of a DSP. Power consumption and performance surpass that of DSPs by several multiples. PACT sells the XPP cores in the form of soft IP that can be easily customized for use in mobile telephones, PDAs, workstations and further high-performance next-generation systems. Further information about PACT XPP Technologies is available at www.pactxpp.com, including a number of detailed white papers describing company's technology. 

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Source: PACT XPP Technologies AG

CONTACT:  Gundel Hahn Medienservice of PACT XPP Technologies AG,

+49-89-12-39-22-04, or fax, +49-89-12-39-22-90, or [email-masked]

Web site:  http://www.pactcorp.com/

Web site:  http://www.pactxpp.com/

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