An uncertain 4G window

(CEVA Inc. contacted me over the weekend to point out a flaw in the original blog post, which is preserved in its original form below.  Two architectural demonstrations were made by CEVA at CTIA.  The LTE platform introduced by CEVA is called CEVA-XC, a processor already optimized for LTE services.  CEVA showed this processor with a partner, mimoOn, and its design already has a licensee, Beceem Communications.  The MM3000 is an HD video processing solution that can be used in handhelds, and is currently implemented in FPGAs.  Thus, CEVA can show solutions operating in both FPGA-based and ASSP environments, which underscores the message of the blog post, but gives the company a play in both implementation realms.)

Announcements regarding 4G services, either based on Long-Term Evolution or WiMAX, were commonplace at the recent CTIA wireless conference, but they were mostly tactical in nature. Those anticipating a rapid explosion of FPGA implementations of software-defined radio must have been surprised to see the only significant DSP announcement based on FPGAs coming from CEVA Inc., who introduced its CEVA-MM3000 development kit at CTIA.

The reason for this lackluster showing could be found in the reader comments to a story early in the week from Junko Yoshida at EE Times. She taked to the CEVA CEO on the role of targeted, semi-programmable DSPs in 4G services, and received a good argument on the anticipated place for DSP IP cores and FPGAs. But readers suggested in the online feedback that this view only held sway until dedicated LTE and WiMAX chips could optimized next-generation services for extremely small handsets.

This is a tougher question to answer definitively than either side may admit. Some Virtex and Stratix families may offer such useful DSP blocks, combined with an adequate cost per gate, that they will serve as combination baseband/packet processors for at least the first few years of 4G’s existence. But if we look to the example of past mobile wireless services like EV-DO and HSPA, a highly-optimized baseband processor for 4G is likely to dominate the market by 2013 or so.

The first quarter of 2011 may prove interesting, with multiple FPGA-based 4G designs at Mobile World Congress and CTIA. But the splash may be only tactical, with highly-optimized 4G processors from the likes of Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Texas Instruments taking over a slot occupied for a brief time by FPGAs.