Semiconductor Vendors Collaborate to Promote a Full 3GPP-LTE Interoperability Development Testing (IODT) Environment

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair Semiconductor, a 4G chip company developing the world's most advanced mobile semiconductors for handheld devices; Texas Instruments, and Wintegra, a leader in system components for base stations have collaborated with other system partners to create an end-to-end LTE base station and mobile Interoperability Development Testing (IODT) platform.  The IODT platform allows for the rapid development and testing of systems and subsystems based on components from these and other vendors.  

The IODT platform supports a Gigabit S1/X2 backhaul interface from the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) into an eNodeB uTCA chassis.  A Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) connects to a Remote Radio Head (RRH).  An air interface from the RRH to an Altair Semiconductor-based LTE USB ExpressCard UE provides full streaming connectivity from the EPC to the mobile user. The platform provides base station and terminal vendors with all the elements for test and verification of Next Generation LTE designs.

Base Station Transceiver (BTS) control and transport software together with backhaul and air interface security support runs on a Wintegra WinPath3 processor.  LTE Layer 1 PHY processing is supported on Texas Instruments TCI6487 multi-core DSPs and Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs. Layer 1 PHY software from Tata Elxsi is running on the TI DSP's and supports a full uplink and downlink processing chain.  

The air interface on the UE side incorporates a complete L1 and protocol stack by Altair, running over a FourGee™-3100/6200 LTE Category-3 baseband/RFIC chipset.

"There is significant industry discussion at the moment about how to best provide end users with optimal coverage and how this can be achieved in a Heterogeneous Network that combines a mix of macros, picos, femtos and relays in the same spectrum," said Colin Alexander, Director of Wireless Marketing for Wintegra.  "Providing a low-latency platform complete with Air Interface IODT capability will let vendors stress their systems and help rapid deployment of, for example, a new series of small cell Pico LTE base station equipment that could offload data from overloaded macro-based networks."

"Being able to demonstrate the power and flexibility of TI's DSPs when combined into a full reference implementation offers great value to our end customers," said Arnon Friedmann, strategic marketing director at Texas Instruments.  "Many developers are creating designs to support the requirements of LTE and LTE-Advanced and the availability of an operational IODT platform can speed their development process."

"Taking part in this end-to-end system is an important step in demonstrating the maturity of our LTE UE solution, the FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE," said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development at Altair. "Most of the IOT work we had performed to date was air-interface centric, so this work as part of a comprehensive ecosystem of network components stresses and proves another important aspect in our product."

About Wintegra

Wintegra is a leading provider of access processing semiconductors enabling the delivery of new services for the evolving communications network infrastructure. Wintegra-based solutions are used in a wide range of networking and communication platforms such as wire-line and wireless infrastructure, and access routers and are used by many of the leading equipment manufacturers worldwide.  For more information, visit www.wintegra.com.

About Altair Semiconductor

Altair Semiconductor is the world's leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G semiconductors. The company's products provide device manufacturers integrating any 4G technology into their products with a highly power-optimized, robust and cost-effective solution. Altair's comprehensive product portfolio includes baseband processors, multi-band RF transceivers for both FDD and TDD bands, and a range of reference hardware and product level protocol stack software. Based on a novel, proprietary Software Defined Radio (SDR) processor, codenamed "O2P™", Altair's products are the smallest and most highly power optimized in the industry, offering an unmatched combination of flexibility and performance. Altair is privately held and has raised a total of $48M in three rounds of financing from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, BRM Capital, ETV Capital, Giza Venture Capital, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Pacific Technology Fund.

SOURCE Altair Semiconductor