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picoChip and Wintegra recently announced joint development of reference designs for a new generation of WiMAX basestations. These designs, based on standard components already on the market, provide a framework from which equipment manufacturers can implement a wide range of 802.16e compliant basestation products. This dramatically reduces the time and cost for OEMs to develop systems, while still enabling complete flexibility and programmability.



The solutions combine picoChip's picoArray family of massively parallel DSPs and industry-leading software for the WiMAX PHY with Wintegra's WinMax processor and software for a complete MAC solution. Coupled with Wintegra's WinPath family of access packet processors and software for transport and backhaul functionality, the joint reference designs offer unmatched flexibility for both radio (air) interface access cards and network interface transport cards, with scalability to cover pico, micro and macro basestation architectures.



A unique aspect of the joint design is that it is software defined: both companies offer fully tested software and vendor-independent APIs that permit rapid integration of MAC, PHY and RF components, as well as additional system software. To date, most WiMAX reference designs have focused solely on "closed" board-level solutions, providing benefits for those seeking to directly manufacture the design, but provide little flexibility for those seeking to add their own features. The picoChip/Wintegra design offers the same benefits of complete integration and interoperability testing, while retaining a programmable, scalable, open approach enabling OEMs to customize and differentiate their offerings.



The design will initially target the 802.16e standard, and will provide a flexible, scalable, software-based upgrade path as new requirements appear in this emerging market. Operators will also benefit from the scalability and flexibility of the Wintegra and picoChip architecture as it will allow them to undertake field software upgrades, avoiding the need for expensive hardware improvements or replacement programs. The joint reference design is targeted for completion in late 2005, with prototypes using the software-compatible WinPath-1 silicon and the PC102 being made available to customers next quarter. General sampling of the WinMax device is scheduled for Spring 2006.



The WinMax MAC solution, based on the same 0.13 µm technology and architecture as the WinPath-2 family of processors from Wintegra, provides a complete 802.16e MAC, utilizing both software and hardware acceleration. Key hardware acceleration features of WinMax include: HCS (Header Check Sequence) acceleration, including CRC-8; payload CRC calculation for all payloads, including CRC-32; sophisticated Policer/Scheduler hardware accelerators; ARQ accelerators for high resolution hardware timestamps and ARQ sliding window acceleration; hardware synchronization support for the MAC/PHY interface; security and authentication engine, including AES-XCB, AES-CCM, 3xDES, HMAC-MD5 and SHA-1 encryption. As with other WinPath products from Wintegra, the WinMax software will be available in both object and source code formats, enabling customers to use the MAC solution as a production-ready module or to create value-add modifications.



picoChip

Wintegra