Subject: [NEXTEL-1] True Software Radio (TSR) – The Technology for Tomorrow

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 23:53:27 -0400

TECHNOCONCEPTS, INC.

Overview
The wireless communications industry is in a state of technological
disarray with competing protocols, frequencies, data rate standards and
incompatible technologies. Service providers build their own network of
base stations overlaying areas with multiple incompatible networks.
Software radios can reconfigure themselves automatically to recognize
and communicate with each other over competing wireless standards (CDMA,
GSM, TDMA, and countless others) resulting in benefits such as improved
system performance, less expensive service cost, and seamless roaming.

Management
TechnoConcepts, Inc. is led by a seasoned, highly-qualified team of
individuals:

Antonio E. Turgeon, Chairman, brings 28 years of international and
domestic experience in computer and communications systems, software
technology and applications services.  Prior to TechnoConcepts, he was a
principal in The Sunrise Group, a consulting firm that provided business
development services to early stage high-tech companies.  From 1994 to
1999 he served as an advisor to a Scandinavian-based venture capital
firm, as well as executive vice president for Dolphin Interconnect
Solutions, Inc., a portfolio company designing Gigabyte hardware
interconnect and software technology for the high-availability,
scalable, server clustering market.  He was a founder and served as
president and CEO of SOTA Electronics Inc. from 1988 to 1994, a company
that designed communications security products and the world’s first PC
managed universal applications Smartcard.  From 1978 to 1988 he was
president of Digital Applications Corporation, a company he founded to
develop software and hardware applications for the aerospace industry.
Mr. Turgeon holds a B.A. in Mathematics form the University of
California, Los Angeles, an M.S. in Computer Science from West Coast
University and completed coursework requirements for an M.S. in Applied
Mathematics.

Contact Tony at: [email-masked]

Ronald M. Hickling, Co-Founder, CTO, Director, holds a master of science
in electrical engineering from UCLA.  He has more than 20 years of
experience in communications systems and integrated circuits related to
communications for U.S. defense and commercial contractors.  Beginning
in 1980, Mr. Hickling began his career with Hughes Space and
Communications, a Hughes Aircraft company, developing circuits for
satellite communications.  In this capacity he developed customer
integrated circuits using silicon CMOS and Bipolar technology, and
actively participated in the early research and development efforts of
using Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) digital circuits in spacecraft.  During
his tenure at Hughes, Mr. Hickling was appointed Group Head, in leading
research projects, for GaAs digital circuits.  Additional projects
included Intelsat VI, Magellan, and Navstar/GPS and he also contributed
to the Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Program (VHSIC).  In 1984 he
left Hughes to pursue commercial ventures.  He joined start up Gigabit
Logic in 1984 and headed development teams on numerous mixed-signal
communications projects.  He was involved in collaboration development
efforts with contract clients such as DEC, Rockwell-Collins, Bell
Communications Research and others.  Mr.  Hickling founded
TechnoConcepts in 1991 and serves as Chief Technology Officer.  He has
been responsible for securing more than $1.1 million in Federal SBIR
funds to develop the key technology elements of its True Software Radio
products.  He has been awarded three patents and currently has two
patents pending.  He has published in numerous industry journals and is
a member of the IEEE and Tau Beta Pi.
Contact Ron at: [email-masked]

Lap Wai Chow, Co-Founder, received his B.S. degree in Electrical
Engineering and M.Phil. degree in Material Science from the Chinese
University of Hong Kong in 1978 and 1980, respectively.  From 1980 to
1982 he worked at Universal Semiconductor in San Jose, developing CMOS
Gate-array and 32K/64K/ROM technology.  In 1982 he joined Elcap
Electronics of Hong Kong, where he was responsible for establishing the
CMOS design department for the development of SRAM and DRAM technology.
He founded Data Research in Hong Kong in 1983 which specialized in the
development of high temperature (more than 250 degrees C) CMOS circuits
used in seismic applications.  He joined Hughes Research Laboratories in
1985, working on various high-speed CMOS research projects.  He is a
founder of TechnoConcepts, Inc.  and in 1996 was also involved in the
founding of InnoTest, Inc., a Hsinchu Science Park technology company in
Taiwan.  Mr. Chow holds nine patents and has 12 patents pending, mostly
in the areas of CMOS technology and high speed computing architecture.

Contact Lap at: [email-masked]

Company Overview

TechnoConcepts, Inc.  was formed on July 3, 1991 as a research and
development (“R & D”) corporation specializing in wireless and fiber
optic communication solutions for U.S. defense and commercial
contractors.  The Company is located in Southern California.  The
Company’s services (R & D, chip design, fabrication, packaging and
verification) have been provided to clients such as the U.S. Departments
of Energy and Defense, Northrop, Hughes, and Omnipoint. These efforts
have resulted in development of several chips, including: (i)
four-channel, high-speed Instrumentation Analog-to-Digital converter,
(ii) ten-channel optical receiver capable of 1 Gigabit per second
operation;  (iii) 1.6 GHz delta-sigma modulator and (iv) mixed-signal,
multi-chip circuit modules. These projects resulted in the development
of significant corporate Intellectual Property (“IP”), including key
issued and pending patents covering TechnoConcepts' True Software Radio
technology.

Technology Summary
True Software Radio (TSR) – The Technology for Tomorrow

A software radio is a wireless communications device that uses software
instead of hardware to perform signal processing, giving it the ability
to support any and all wireless standards simultaneously.
TechnoConcepts has used its proprietary knowledge to produce a low-cost,
industry-unique, frequency-agile, True Software Radio (TSR) transceiver
technology that replaces conventional analog circuitry with the
combination of its proprietary delta-sigma converters and software based
digital signal processing.  In other words, the company has created a
chip that houses software enabling information (audio, video or data)
signals to be extracted directly from the carrier with no intervening
circuits. Just as large mainframe computers evolved to small hand-held
PDAs, TechnoConcepts has taken a proven technology and brought it down
to a level where it can be installed directly on the antennae of either
the sending or receiving wireless devices – and process the signals
right at that point.  True Software Radio (TSR) technology works in this
way:  The software is embedded on a proprietary semi-conductor chip
that  “grabs” a signal and immediately translates this signal – from
analog to digital and from one type of transmission (protocol) to
another – without the need for a physical middle device.  It can
translate the signals from cell phones, radios – even television
broadcasts – since radio frequency broadcast in one format can be
received, translated and understood by the receiver with the True
Software Radio (TSR) technology.

A single TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio module can handle five
times more voice traffic than traditional or existing hardware and can
handle the value-added high-speed data and video traffic linked to the
wireless Internet without requiring any additional hardware or software.
TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio can handle any protocols in the
licensed and unlicensed frequency range from 1 MHz to 5.6 GHz.  In
addition, TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio technology provides the
additional capability for directly capturing global positioning (GPS)
signals and processing navigation information as well. TechnoConcepts’
True Software Radio technology can be applied to a wide range of markets
since this technology can be used in any device that uses radio
frequency (RF) for communication.

Applications of TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio (TSR) Technology

TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio (TSR) technology can be applied in
several areas.  Among them are the following:
Cellular Base Stations:  Cellular service has been historically limited
to once-a-decade upgrades of equipment because of the tremendous costs
involved.  A wireless network infrastructure based on True Software
Radio (TSR) technology can now be upgraded to new standards more quickly
and at a lower cost saving hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment
maintenance and upgrades simply by carrying out inexpensive software
changes.  Just as an individual or business can update a software
program used on a PC, cellular providers can easily and quickly simply
upgrade software to make changes on their systems with the use of
TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio (TSR) technology.  As a result, the
cost for cellular phone service can continue to be lowered for
consumers; while the providers can see higher margins for the service
they provide.
Military Uses:  The U.S. military has significant radio interoperability
problems.  In a joint country effort, it is not unusual for one
country’s radio system to be incompatible with another country’s.  It’s
even been the case that within the United States military one branch of
the service can’t “talk” to another branch because of different radio
systems.  TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio (TSR) can solve the
problem in a simple manner so that on the battle field if an English
soldier needs to communicate with a Polish soldier the only language
barrier will be the actual spoken one – not one from the radio
equipment.
Public Safety:  As with the military, local, state and federal agencies
that respond to public safety situations also have radios that do not
communicate with each other.  In effect, the agencies, who are all
trying to help deal with the same emergency, simply cannot “talk” to
each other or share database information.  Since there is no way to know
in advance when these “first responders” will have an emergency that
requires a response, TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio (TSR)
technology can provide a flexible and rapid solution so that these
workers can communicate directly with each other.  It enables firemen to
talk to policemen and vice versa –something that has become even more
important in our post-9/11 world.  Additionally, TechnoConcepts’ True
Software Radio (TSR) technology can also be used so that radio or
telephone handsets can be switched from cellular to satellite
communications in the event of a blackout that would disable base
station operations.  This would have been greatly welcomed during the
blackout that affected the northeastern part of North America in 2003.
Consumer Devices:  TechnoConcepts’ True Software Radio Technology (TSR)
enables the development of wireless consumer devices that can
communicate with different wireless systems; operate over licensed and
non-licensed frequency domains; and support current as well as future
technological standards and services.
As a consequence the following are some of the things that can happen:
·                    Cellular Phones – Gartner Research estimated that
700 million cell phones would be sold worldwide in 2003.  And in a
recent New York Times story (January 15, 2004), it was noted that there
are more than 150 million Americans using cell phones.  The Times’
article points out that the biggest concern among those cell phone users
is coverage – which is nothing more than one network being able to talk
to another network.  And this is where True Software Radio (TSR) comes
in.  The biggest benefit is that it will allow many – if not all – of
those dead zones that frustrate cell phone users to vanish.  True
Software Radio (TSR) technology can enable mobile phones to work with
any carrier’s transmission system in any geographic area – and can even
allow users to download new services and features from their providers
without purchasing new handsets.  This can be particularly important for
those businesses that are global in scope, as there is the increasing
demand for cell phones that work in both the U.S. and abroad.
Furthermore, the ability to download new services to an existing phone
will be very attractive to most cell phone users who sign two-year
contracts – and normally don’t  change phones until the two year period
is up.  And, with technology changing almost daily, cell phone users
will welcome the ability to add or change functions through the download
of software over the air.  For example, many would welcome the
opportunity to make their cell phone into a mobile GPS device or TV
remote.  It is through the use of True Software Radio (TSR) technology
that these examples can become commonplace.

·                    Television – There is a conversion underway of the
analog signal to digital.  As of May 2003, more than 1,000 stations were
on the air with DTV signals and every major television market has at
least one DTV station.  Congress has set a date of December 31, 2006 for
complete transition from analog broadcasting to digital.  Until this
date, television sets are required to broadcast on both digital and
analog channels, but once the date arrives, analog will end and digital
will prevail.  It would be a simple task for television stations to
provide the conversion for consumers with the use of TechnoConcepts’
True Software Radio (TSR).

·                    HDTV – True Software Radio (TSR) may also have
significant applications in the conversion of both analog and digital
transmissions to HDTV, an up and coming broadcast technology.

Benefits of Adopting TechnoConcepts’ True Software Technology (TSR)
The benefits of adopting True Software Technology are the following:

·        Standard architecture for a wide range of communications
products
·        Non-restrictive wireless roaming for consumers by extending the
capabilities of current and emerging commercial
         air-interface standards
·        Uniform communication across commercial, civil, federal and
military organizations
·        Potential for significant life-cycle cost reductions
·        It can handle five times more voice traffic than existing
hardware
·        Over the air downloads of new features and services as well as
software patches
·        Advanced networking capabilities to allow truly "portable"
networks
·        Leverage component (hardware and software) costs across
multiple product lines
·        Staff reductions (Prod Development, Operations, Production,
Maintenance and other areas)
·        It will enable consumers the ability to download – over the air
– new features and services as well as repair any software problems.

Companies that adopt  True Software Radio technology from TechnoConcepts
can realize considerable savings in the following areas:

1.Component Costs -a single component from TechnoConcepts to address all
of their products can replace numerous components purchased from various
manufacturers to address different product requirements resulting in
cost reductions based upon volume of components purchased;

2.The Development of a Reusable Technology Base – software (firmware)
which can be shared across product lines can result in lowered
development costs and a quicker time to market when introducing a new
product;

4.Staff Reductions –the leveraging of personnel familiar with
TechnoConcepts’ technology across multiple product lines can replace
teams of technical people for each product line.  Areas where staff
reductions might occur may include:
(i)                 Engineering: Design, Development, Lay-out, Debug,
Systems Test & Verification;
(ii)               Production: Logistics, Purchasing, Manufacturing,
Receiving, Incoming Inspection,
and Quality Control; and
(iii)             Post Sales Support: Maintenance and Technical Support

Comparison of conventional analog receiver architecture with software
radio architecture.
Figure 1 illustrates how digitization of the wireless signal
functionally at the antenna dramatically simplifies the implementation
of receivers. The conventional analog architecture typically uses a
“double conversion” scheme, which first converts the incoming signal to
an intermediate frequency (IF) and then proceeds to extract the
information from the IF signal.  As can be seen from the diagram, the
architecture utilizes multiple analog interfaces and thus can be prone
to severe crosstalk.  Furthermore, since the waveform decoding is
generally done in the analog domain, the receiver can only process one
type of signal.  In contrast, the “software radio” implementation has a
single analog interface, eliminating conventional analog crosstalk.  The
architecture requires few external analog components and can be
programmed to process any type of signal or multiple types of signals.
(a)
(b)

Figure 1. Comparison of conventional analog receiver architecture with
software radio architecture.  (a) Conventional analog receiver that
typically uses a double-conversion design.  The architecture requires
multiple external analog components (shown as red boxes – or dark gray
in black and white copies), contains many analog interfaces (shown as
red – or dark gray – lines), and can only decode one type of waveform.
(b) “True Software Radio” implementation based upon TechnoConcepts’ high
speed analog-to-digital converter.  It has a single analog interface and
can be programmed to process any type of waveform.
Delta-sigma converters digitize signals by modulating the analog input
into a high-speed one-bit digital data stream that is subsequently
processed digitally to produce a high resolution word stream at a slower
data rate.  The converter is a closed-loop system in which the order of
the loop and the input bandwidth may be traded for resolution.

TechnoConcepts has developed a delta-sigma converter technology that is
capable of operating at Multi-GHz clock rates.  This technology, which
uses GaAs semiconductor technology, was originally developed under an
SBIR sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.  TechnoConcepts has
further developed this technology by inventing an architecture that
simultaneously extracts the modulation from an incoming wireless signal
and digitizing it with extremely high resolution and dynamic ranges of
86-98 dB are achievable using this architecture.

Contact Information
2060D Avenida de Los Arboles,  #148
Thousand Oaks, CA  91362
TEL: 818.707.0265 or 818.206.3040   FAX: 818.707.0355
For Public Relations matters please contact:
Ms. Beverly Jedynak
Executive Vice President
Martin E. Janis & Company, Inc.
625 N. Michigan, Suite 420
Chicago, IL  60611
Tel:  312.943.1100 ext.12
[email-masked]
Web address
www.technoconcepts.com

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