Mobile Technology
mass scale production by only requiring software changes to address each of the markets.
However, there is still a huge challenge
in providing a programmable solution that is capable of handling the tremendous processing demands of 4G standards under stringent power consumption constraints. Standard programmable architectures cannot efficiently address these challenges. To address this opportunity, we will see the advent of specialised communication processors that have been designed and optimised for the most demanding wireless standards and that can address the performance and flexibility challenges to enable efficient 4G
software defined radio technology for cell phones is the power budget. While the performance required has been achieved by a few, none of the designs have been able to work within the extremely tight power constraints that are essential for the successful adoption of mainstream SDR communications processors. Handset vendors are keeping power budgets flat in the transition from 3G to 4G despite the ten-fold increase in data rates. Meanwhile, the massive jump in computational complexity in 4G makes it difficult to keep costs and power consumption down. Hitting the right cost and power levels is particularly difficult for devices with additional air interfaces such as 2G/3G,
modem design. A processor architecture that can be deployed in both wireless terminal and infrastructure equipment is ideal. Such a platform must be specific in the sense that it is designed to meet the requirements of baseband communication, but it must also be generic and flexible, and based on a highly flexible programmable engine, in order to support different communication standards
And a custom processor alone is not enough, as evidenced by the growing use of ‘platforms’ or subsystems. A useful solution will include the required system components, pre-optimised software libraries and even complete modems, as well as multi-mode modem reference architectures covering various wireless standards for both wireless terminal and infrastructure equipment.
Software development Since differentiation will be achieved through software, another key requirement is an efficient software development environment. Designers need a compiler-friendly architecture that allows them to achieve full performance capabilities in a high level language. This will be realised through more flexible development environments that include, for example, specific extensions to address vector type operations in high level programming.
Finally a thought about power – always high on any mobile produce developer’s list of requirements. Whichever 4G technology one uses, implementing the technology with acceptable power and cost is a major challenge with traditional approaches. As is well documented, the biggest problem facing the adoption of
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WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC and mobile TV. Until now, SDR methods faced
difficulties in meeting power consumption budget. For this reason, most of the prior SDR work was done in the wireless infrastructure domain since such equipment is not battery operated and hence more resilient to power consumption. However, as we move to wireless terminal applications, power is no longer a question of efficiency but an elementary feasibility issue. A flexible and performance-oriented solution is virtually useless if it cannot meet the power stringent budgets of wireless products. The solution must be built from the ground up with effective power management techniques that address both dynamic power and leakage. The seemingly insatiable need for more bandwidth in mobile products, fuelled by consumers’ desire for more and better content (HD video, streaming content, etc.) has certainly placed new challenges in front of chip developers who serve these markets. It calls for a new approach in how to design chips that address these requirements in a low power and cost efficient manner. From our point of view, programmability and flexibility are the keys for the future architectures of wireless communications processors. This will ensure that multiple existing and future standards will be supported to enable re- usability through software in chip designs. We see SDR-based methods using programmable platforms as the only way forward in the world of 4G and beyond.
CEVA |
www.ceva-dsp.com
Eyal Bergman is Director of Product Marketing, CEVA
Components in Electronics February 2012 25
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