Texas Instruments Debuts High-Performance 3G/4G Base Station Chip

Texas Instruments introduced a System-on-Chip (SoC) designed for high performance macro base stations capable of supporting all wireless standards, including WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, GSM, TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, and WiMAX. The new TCI6616 device, which is based on the company’s new TMS320C66x digital signal processor (DSP) offers clock speed operating frequencies of up to 1.2 GHz — a new benchmark for the industry, according to TI. This drives performance that is double that of any 3G/4G SoC in the market.

TI also boasts that its TCI6616, which leverages the company’s Keystone architecture, is the industry’s first multicore DSP that processes both fixed- and floating-point math, an innovative capability that simplifies wireless base station software design. The company said its configurable coprocessors enable Software Defined Radio (SDR), which allows operators to migrate to emerging standards without needing external components. Autonomous packet processing in the TCI6616 manages packets from both core and radio networks, offloading packet processing and freeing cycles for algorithms that enhance spectral efficiency. The autonomous operation of the packet coprocessors simplifies design and reduces costs for developers. Together, these configurable coprocessors, which target all major wireless standards, yield the performance equivalent of over 250 DSPs.
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