Freescale Discloses Reference Platform for Next-Generation PHS Base Station Equipment

November 23, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

Next-generation PHS technology is expected to enable speeds higher than 20 Mbps by integrating orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radio with the multi-antenna multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) techniques.

The higher speeds and antenna technologies bring the capacity to deliver services such as interactive video and future media-rich services to the handset, Freescale said.

The reference design will consist of the MPC8548 PowerQUICC communications processor and programmable multicore MSC8144 digital signal processor (DSP), providing flexible baseband processing for the control and physical layers.

The MSC8144 DSP is based on StarCore DSP technology and is designed to reduce system cost and power while improving performance for intensive network processing, Freescale said.

The MSC8144 DSP embeds four multiple-issue 1 GHz StarCore DSP cores and integrates a high-density embedded DSP memory at 10.5 MB, a security coprocessor, reduced instruction set computer (RISC) engines and high-speed networking interfaces.

"The high-performance programmable processing of the MSC8144 DSP allows OEMs to use the same device, hardware platform and tools for multiple applications and standards by using differentiated software loads," said Jeff Timbs, director of marketing for Freescale's networking systems division.

"When combined with the market leading PowerQUICC Processors in the same system, developers have a tightly integrated processing platform capable of delivering next-generation base station solutions," Timbs said.

Source: Freescale Semiconductor Inc.