Global Designer: Ecosystem supports collaborative product development

ADI's (Analog Devices Inc's) India development center is focusing on DSP design and application engineering and helping Indian companies develop products for domestic and international markets. MobiApps, a Bangalore-based provider of hybrid terrestrial and satellite technologies for commercial communications, has developed the m100D OEM transceiver for tracking and industrial remote communications. The m100D operates using the Orbcomm low-earth-orbit satellite network and targets fleet-tracking and remote asset-management applications.

MobiApps based the m100D on the ADI Blackfin DSP, which handles Orbcomm baseband signals; an ADI GPS RF downconverter; and a MobiApps' discrete RF module. Commenting on the use of ADI embedded processors in the design, T Narayana Rao, program manager at ADI India, says, "By using the Blackfin DSP, MobiApps has been able to reduce the size of its product by 50%. A single Blackfin processor does the GPS baseband processing, Orbcomm satellite modem communication, and host processing. This [approach] eliminates the need for three processors." ADI developed Blackfin, a 16/32-bit embedded processor, at its Indian development center.

In addition to the processor, MobiApps also received software-system-engineering assistance from ADI. MobiApps, ADI, and other Indian strategic-development partners jointly developed the GPS engine and associated communications that the MobiApps application uses, explains Rao. The MobiApp transceiver also incorporates a proprietary memory architecture to support over-the-air reprogramming for simplified field logistics.

Analog Devices Inc, www.analog.com.

MobiApps, www.mobiapps.com.