Texas Instruments has extended its LTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless portfolio with the introduction of a three core digital signal processor running at 3.6GHz coupled with a software library. Sampling begins this quarter.
The TCI6487, which is designed for LTE base stations, contains three DSP cores, each running at 1.2 GHz. Each core has its own dedicated 1 Mbyte of L2 with 32k of L1 data and program cache minimizing off-chip memory access and enabling efficient software architectures. Each DSP core contains one RSA unit that can accelerate the decoding of LTE CQI information — a savings of up to 1 GHz per sector for 20 MHz LTE systems.
TI said the new LTE solution enables OEMs to extend their current basestation platforms to include new features and more complex algorithms without designing a new board. In addition, the optimized software library for LTE leverages specialized accelerators and instructions to further improve efficiency.
“A key driver for LTE deployment is the consumer’s insatiable demand for data-intensive applications running on mobile internet devices or smartphones, including interactive remote games, streaming video and location-based applications, which require significantly more bandwidth and no tolerance for latency. To meet these challenging network requirements while keeping an eye on costs, basestation OEMs and carriers need a powerful, scaleable solution similar to the one TI is providing,” said Kathy Brown, general manager of TI’s wireless basestation infrastructure group.
In addition to LTE software libraries, TI provides optimized libraries for WiMAX and WCDMA to further enable multi-standard developments. These libraries enable higher channel density as well as lower power per channel. Developed and tested within TI’s carrier-class environment, the inclusion of this software allows basestation OEMs to better focus on their system level solutions.
http://www.ti.com/morelte
