The demand for MIPS (million instructions per second) in the communications field increases by a factor of ten every four years. According to "Moore's Law," traditional processor technology can provide corresponding capabilities every six years even with frequent upgrades and density improvements. . As a result, the gap between the rapidly growing signal processing requirements of the communications system itself and the processing power of the processor is increasing. This is the challenge facing next-generation wireless communication systems including 3G and WiMAX.
In the process of seeking new solutions, some emerging companies emerged with their unique solutions. British picoChip is such a company. Founded in 2000, picoChip, with its proprietary picoArray processor array, specializes in providing chips, design tools, system software, and reference designs for 3G and WiMAX base stations.
Better than DSP+FPGA performance
Most base station solutions typically use ASIC/FPGA, DSP, and high-speed general-purpose processors in combination. FPGAs are used for chip rate processing where rate requirements exceed the DSP range; DSPs are typically used for symbol-rate processing sections; and general purpose processors are used to manage the entire system. However, due to the use of different design methods, programming models, tools, and test frameworks for each device in the system, the difficulty of system integration is greatly increased.
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Figure 1: The fully integrated environment of picoArray. |
picoChip believes that FPGAs and DSPs are not the best solution for base station design. Although FPGA can provide high performance and predictability, it can only be designed at a very low level of abstraction, high power consumption and high cost; although DSP has a large number of ready-made codes available for use, it cannot provide the required powerful functions. And performance is difficult to predict and test. Combining the two requires performing a large number of complex and difficult tasks when the system is partitioned.
PicoChip proposes a coarse-grained, massively parallel heterogeneous 16-bit processor array picoArray that replaces the traditional DSP+FPGA solution. picoChip has now launched the PC101 and PC102 versions of the picoArray chip, and the company's CEO Guillaume d'Eyssautier, also taking PC102 as an example, compared the performance of picoArray with DSP and FPGA.
First, the PC 102 has a more powerful processing structure. The PC102 contains 308 processors and 14 coprocessors, providing higher per-channel MIPS rates, reaching 200GIPS and 40GMACs at 60MHz (Giga multiply-accumulates per second), which is 10 times that of traditional DSPs. the above. Each processor has different "features" that are optimized for different tasks.
The second biggest innovation of picoArray lies in its interconnect structure and its integration with the tool chain. D'Eyssautier introduced: "All processors can handle one task at the same time, which greatly improves efficiency." The routing of the processor array is programmed at design time, so resources can be statically allocated and deterministic, and each processor They can also be connected to each other (not just the nearest neighbors). This architecture not only has extremely high bandwidth (Tbps), but also supports TDM access mechanisms.
The third point is the picoArray development kit. For users, picoChip provides tools that allow users to clearly understand the operation of each processor at any time. By replacing several ASIC/FPGAs, DSPs, and embedded processors with several picoArray devices, a single tool kit can be used instead of multiple tool kits, which greatly reduces development complexity and reduces the final size of the end product.
The fourth point is power consumption. The power consumption of the picoArray is directly proportional to the number of processors that are working in the system and the amount of busy work. D'Eyssautier said that if part of the processor is not used in the design, it will automatically shut down and enter the low power mode; if the processor is in use, but not currently activated (such as waiting for the data process), then automatically For sleep mode, this saves power.
The last point is the cost. In the base station construction, a highly integrated single PC102 chip can be used to replace several DSP and FPGA chips, thereby greatly saving the construction cost of the base station.
D'Eyssautier demonstrated a comparison result provided by its customers. In an OFDM base station, two PC102s can be used instead of five TS201 DSPs and two FPGAs, which saves 70% of the cost and 70%. The power consumption, while the development time is also reduced by half. In a TD-SCDMA base station, when using two PCs 102 instead of six TI C6 and two large FPGAs, the cost is reduced by 60%, the power consumption is reduced from 30W to 8W, and the performance is improved (delay from 7ms. Reduced to 600us).
D'Eyssautier summarized that the three main features of picoArray over DSP and FPGA are the powerful computing capabilities, user-friendliness of array-oriented tools, and reduced solution costs.
Then d'Eyssautier revealed that the company will launch a simplified version of the PC202 and PC203 (50-80 processors) with fewer processors in the first and second quarters of next year, so that the base station can use the processing chip more flexibly according to the processing requirements. Quantity. Dr. Luo Ningsheng from PicoChip's representative office in China said: "If we compare PC102 to one dollar coin, the upcoming PC202 and PC203 will be like five-corner and one-corner coins." In addition, the company plans to use 90 Nanotechnology implements second-generation hardware and plans to use the existing PC102 with a 70-nanometer process to further reduce costs.
WiMAX Becomes the Focus of PicoChip
As a configurable solution, PicoChip's picoArray device can be applied to both 3G and WiMAX, and it has been a topic of debate in the industry whether or not these two systems will compete. In this regard, d'Eyssautier believes: "At present, 3G technologies such as 802.16d and HSDPA complement each other and there is no competing relationship. Wireless terminals for HSDPA data transmission are handheld devices such as mobile phones, while WiMAX transmission terminals are PCs and other devices." He also pointed out that WiMAX has advantages in terms of data and voice transmission, and the construction cost of base stations is also cheaper; in addition, the unlicensed band of WiMAX is more attractive than 3G expensive licensing fees. However, because the authorization fee for investing in 3G is already too large, operators cannot give up on this, so these two standards will coexist for a certain period of time.
"PicoChip will focus more on WiMAX development," said d'Eyssautier. Currently, picoChip has developed a WiMAX physical layer (PHY) device that conforms to the 802.16d standard using its PC102. Due to its configurability, it allows designers to upgrade to the 802.16e standard without hardware changes. For the final development of the 802.16e standard, d'Eyssautier hopes to be next year.
Upgradability is a very important feature for emerging standards such as WiMAX. D'Eyssautier believes that the future WiMAX standard may be developed in accordance with the development of applications like Wi-Fi. There will be many different versions of WiMAX, and WiMAX will be even more regional, so as to meet the development of different countries, just like South Korea now. WiBro standard.
The full scalability and flexibility of the PicoChip PHY solution allow it to adapt to future changes in the WiMAX standard. In picoChip's view, its picoArray configurable processor is the product that best fits the needs of the WiMAX market.
"Compared to this, FPGAs have too large an area and they cost too much," said Luo Ningsheng. "But taking into account the market size of WiMAX base stations, the development cost of ASIC solutions is too expensive and not necessarily worthwhile."
In fact, the emergence of WiMAX provides this emerging company with excellent market opportunities. PicoChip claims to have won 10 design wins so far. Luo Ningsheng revealed that more than half of the company’s revenue has come from WiMAX.
In order to promote the development of the WiMAX market, picoChip is working with other partners to launch a complete WiMAX reference design solution, which is generally provided by the PHY, while the other party is responsible for the development of the MAC. For example, the WiMAX base station reference design SoftMax developed jointly with Airspan incorporates picoChip's picoArray physical layer (PHY) processor and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) expertise, while Airspan offers MAC and higher layer software. Currently the 802.16d standard can be implemented.
SoftWAX is a complete, end-to-end software-defined radio (SDR) solution that supports features such as space-time coding techniques, multiple configurations, adaptive antenna systems, and MIMO smart antennas. With picoChip's software-defined architecture, SoftWAX provides operators with flexible on-site network upgrades and modifications that reduce operator risk.
In addition, picoChip has also collaborated with Intel, the most important enabler of WiMAX, to launch the WiMAX base station platform and recently obtained a $20.5 million investment from Intel and other venture capital firms. It also worked with Hifn, a US manufacturer of network security chips, to launch a complete WiMAX base station reference design using a picoArray processor and a Hifn 7956 WiMAX security processor.
Considering that mainland China is one of the world’s most important wireless communications markets, picoChip recently signed a development partnership agreement with the Wireless Technology Research Institute (WTI-BUPT) of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, following the signing of a WiMAX cooperation agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Working together to develop a reference design for WiMAX base stations.
D'Eyssautie said that in this cooperation, picoChip will provide PC102-based PHY parts, while the MAC part will be completely developed by Beipu.
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