A leader in silicon for fixed IEEE 802.16d WiMax gear, UK-based picoChip has turned to Cambridge Consultants to develop reference designs for the emerging 802.16e mobile-WiMax standard. Many view the mobile flavor of WiMax as potentially more lucrative than the fixed flavor (see "WiMax wireless broadband: Fixed-flavor questions abound, mobile lurks," EDN, March 31, 2005, pg 44, www.edn.com/article/CA512128). The technology could become the de facto fourth-generation cellular implementation delivering broadband service to mobile users. Such a service could be a compelling offer everywhere, whereas fixed WiMax may win major business only in regions in which service providers haven't already deployed wider broadband.

The partnership between picoChip and Cambridge Consultants will deliver designs for both the base-station and the client sides of the wireless link. The two claim that the software-centric nature of the implementation will minimize risks associated with deploying a product based on any emerging standard. The plan is for the design to be field-upgradable to meet tweaks in the standard's development. The partners also claim that it will allow designers to add system functions—for instance, moving to MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) or smart-antenna technologies. Indeed, picoChip also just signed a partnership with ArrayComm (www.arraycomm.com) to add that company's MIMO technology to picoChip's physical-layer portfolio.

The mobile-WiMax reference designs will rely on picoChip's picoArray silicon. The massively parallel multi-instruction, multiple-data architecture delivers an array of DSP cores to the communication task. The partners are pledging delivery of the reference designs early this year and hope to participate in 802.16e plugfests starting in June.

picoChip, www.picochip.com.

Cambridge Consultants, www.cambridgeconsultants.com.