Philips-VLSI>
Telecom 99: Philips outlines platform solution
By Peter Clarke
EE Times
(10/12/99, 2:26 p.m. EDT)
GENEVA — Philips Semiconductors will introduce its Telecom Platform this
week at Telecom 99, marking the beginnings of a set of reusable hardware
and software building blocks that the company claims can cut ASIC design
times from 18 months to as little as one month.
Philips is also working to improve its DSP offerings to handle the processing
demands of third-generation (3G) cell phone multimedia requirements. The
company said that by the middle of next year, the Telecom Platform will
include an enhanced multimedia DSP core.
The first announcement of Philips Semiconductors' system-level
platform-based design methodology was made at the IFA show in Berlin at
the end of August, in the form of the Nexperia digital video platform. That
was followed by a car "infotainment" platform announced at the IAA
automotive exhibition in Frankfurt in September.
This week, Philips is due to announce that a Bluetooth chip set and a
single-chip baseband chip supporting General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
over GSM are already available within its telecom portfolio. GPRS allows
data transfer across the wireless domain at higher rates than previously
allowed by the standards.
The Telecom Platform is based on processor cores from ARM Ltd. that
provide the control and processing functionality for the system, paired with
Philips' Real DSP cores to provide digital signal processing. Following the
merger with VLSI Technology Inc. earlier this year, Philips is also offering
Oak and Palm DSP cores. In addition, RF and digital hardware cores for
specific functions such as the Bluetooth interface are included, as are
appropriate software and protocol stacks.
"The Telecom Platform's discipline of managing complexity will enable us to
leverage this and to deliver innovative solutions to . . . precisely match the
requirements of [customers'] product road maps," said Thierry Laurent,
managing director of Philips Semiconductors' telecom terminals business unit.
On the DSP front, "VLSI Technology has customers based on Oak and
Palm, and Philips has customers using Real; we would not wish to rush those
customers onto different DSPs," said Peter Baumgartner, director of global
market segment communications at Philips Semiconductors. "But the merger
with VLSI Technology has enlarged our know-how base in DSP. We are
looking to add multimedia requirements into those DSP offerings."
Baumgartner said no decision has yet been made as to whether that will be
an enhanced Real core or a new architecture, but he promised the Telecom
Platform will offer a complete 3G-capable set of cores by mid-2001.
"We have broad experience in the services that are required for 3G," he said.
"We have the algorithmic experience in audio and video, and we also know
what is required to bring those things into portable equipment."
Although providing a 3G baseband processing chip with good power
efficiency will be a challenge, chip players in the 3G market also need to
offer radio-frequency circuits for the variety of air interfaces being
standardized, Baumgartner said. "We are also well-advanced with a
wideband-CDMA radio chip set."
Standards support
Philips already supports CDMA, GSM and TDMA at the various
second-generation carrier frequencies — 900, 1,800 and 1,900 MHz — and
will support both W-CDMA and cdma2000 at the forthcoming 2-GHz
frequencies. "We will support all standards," said Baumgartner.
Claiming a lead in Bluetooth silicon availability, Philips will launch a
three-piece chip set here that it says will comply with version 1.0 of the
Bluetooth specification when it becomes available in early 2000. Bluetooth is
a scheme for short-distance wireless devices that aims to create low-cost
personal-area networks allowing various mobile gadgets to connect to one
another.
"The similarities to DECT [digital enhanced cordless telephone], in which we
are already a recognized world leader, meant that we were 60 to 70 percent
there with the Bluetooth design before we even started," said Dirk Braune,
product marketing manager for corded and cordless telephone ICs at the
telecom terminals business unit. "Adding VLSI's baseband technology, which
was developed in direct collaboration with Bluetooth founder Ericsson,
virtually gave us an instant total solution."
The chip set comprises a baseband controller built in 0.25-micron CMOS, the
VWS26002, that implements the Ericsson Bluetooth engine and protocol
stack, plus a "low-IF" single-chip BiCMOS transceiver, the UAA3558. The
ARM7-based VWS26002 was designed by VLSI Technology; the
transceiver is a Philips-designed device.
Baumgartner said a third chip, which acts as an interface between the other
two, was designed quickly to make the Philips- and VLSI-originated designs
compatible.
"By April next year we will have an enhanced baseband controller working
with the UAA3558 transceiver, with specialized hardware and software for
highly integrated Bluetooth solutions," said Braune. "And soon after that we'll
have embedded-system components to meet a wide range of different
Bluetooth profiles."
The embedded-system components will allow customers to take portions of
the Bluetooth chip set — typically the digital portions — and integrate them
within more complex Philips-manufactured ASICs, Baumgartner said.
Baumgartner said he could not predict when the Bluetooth chip set might go
to a single-chip CMOS implementation. "The question is to do with power
consumption and minimizing external components," he said. "It's better to
have an optimized two-chip solution than a suboptimal single chip."
Philips Semiconductors can also put its RF power amplifier technology to use
with an add-on power amplifier that boosts the Bluetooth wireless range from
10 meters to the 100 meters required in large office and outdoor applications.
On the baseband side, VLSI Technology's Velocity Rapid Silicon Prototyping
system has been upgraded to support the hardware/software co-design of
Bluetooth systems or embedded Bluetooth ASICs using libraries of
intellectual-property blocks.
ARM processor cores, memory systems and peripheral interfaces such as
USB ports or UARTs can be integrated alongside the company's new
LightBlue Bluetooth link controller. Velocity's software design tools will
enable designers to bring together only those software blocks that are needed
for the desired Bluetooth profile, so that they can meet system ROM size
requirements.
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