Moto Gets Smart 592346

PARIS -- SMART NETWORKS DEVELOPER FORUM -- Wireless infrastructure vendors face multiple challenges--from intense cost pressures to rapidly evolving standards to significant R&D risks--in their quest to deliver base station platforms for next-generation wireless networks. Motorola (NYSE:MOT) helps them meet these challenges with its Smart Baseband Solutions, a comprehensive, system-level baseband processing architecture designed for 2.5G and 3G base stations. Motorola's MRC6011 Reconfigurable Compute Fabric (RCF) device and next-generation MSC8126 multicore StarCore® digital signal processor (DSP), in concert with Motorola wireless application software library modules, offer the underlying silicon and software technology for Motorola's Smart Baseband Solutions.

The MRC6011 RCF device is engineered to provide an efficient processing solution for a wide range of computationally intensive applications, such as baseband processing for 3G and broadband wireless access systems. Working in tandem with Motorola's MSC8126 StarCore DSP, the MRC6011 RCF device is designed to enable system architects to adapt algorithms and fix bugs before and after deployment, fine-tune baseband architecture and manage partition and load on the fly, design multi-standard wireless platforms, and add advanced capabilities, such as adaptive antenna (AA) and multi-user detection.

Motorola's Smart Baseband Solutions offer the advanced RCF and DSP components, along with library modules and development tools, required to develop scalable and programmable baseband processing systems that accommodate multiple standards, such as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000), Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). Smart Baseband technology supports system-level flexibility, a consistent design environment for the entire baseband and efficient C and assembly programming. In addition, the technology is based on optimized processor-application mapping to increase capacity, deliver high performance and maintain low-power dissipation per channel.

“RCF technology provides a programmable alternative to more costly ASIC- and FPGA-based baseband system designs,” said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts. “Today's wireless infrastructure market is undergoing a rapid transition toward 3G technology. During this transition, base station vendors require baseband processing solutions that will help reduce R&D and deployment costs as well as ongoing cost of ownership. RCF is an exciting new approach to meeting these needs and promises to play a prominent role in shaping the future of wireless infrastructure.”

“Motorola's Smart Baseband Solutions are designed to provide a flexible, future-proof reconfigurable compute fabric, enabling manufacturers to reduce the total cost and complexity of wireless infrastructure equipment, adapt to evolving wireless standards around the world, and speed time to market,” said David Perkins, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Networking and Computing Systems Group. “Motorola is driving the future of high-performance, multicore RCF and DSP technology for the benefit of our wireless base station customers. Motorola's MRC6011 device represents a giant step toward our goal of providing groundbreaking silicon solutions for 3G baseband processing.”

In a separate release:

Embedded system designers using the Linux® operating system (OS) can now leverage AltiVec™ technology to boost the performance of their networking and communications applications. Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) has created a downloadable source-code library of AltiVec technology-enabled functions that are frequently used in the Linux OS. The code library (AltiVec technology-enabled equivalents of the Linux string.S and checksum.S files) is designed to help Linux OS developers enhance the speed and efficiency of their applications based on the Motorola G4 processor containing PowerPC™ cores, without upgrading to higher processor speeds.

Motorola has demonstrated a 100 percent improvement in CPU efficiency by employing AltiVec technology-enabled memory copying and checksum calculation functions in the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol stacks within the Linux Kernel. A 50 percent reduction in CPU utilization has been achieved while delivering a TCP bulk data transfer stream at near Gigabit speed¯with no modifications to the Linux TCP/IP stack and with minimal modifications to the sockets layer routines. The existing sockets layer functions were modified to call the AltiVec technology-enabled memcpy and checksum functions from this library.

"Motorola's downloadable AltiVec code library helps developers accelerate the performance of their Linux OS- and Motorola G4 processor-based applications, without having to invest in higher CPU clock speeds," said Bill Dunnigan, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Computing Platforms Division. "In today's cost-sensitive development environment, telecom and networking equipment manufacturers will welcome this capability to enhance system-level performance with no extra component cost or upgrades. Motorola also offers expert support through our AltiVec Center of Excellence to help Linux OS developers speed their G4 processor-based applications to market."

In a separate release:

Focusing on the growing market need for high-density yet cost-effective media gateway solutions, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is now offering two new packet telephony solutions: the Smart Packet Telephony 8102 platform and a next-generation MSC8122 multi-core StarCore®-based digital signal processor (DSP). This highlights Motorola’s commitment to enabling packet telephony for the mainstream market by increasing performance density to address the price-, power-, and size-per-channel challenges faced by packet telephony system architects.

"Motorola is committed to the packet telephony market. With our history and experience in this industry, we have a deep understanding of the issues faced by today’s system designers," said Lynelle McKay, general manager and vice president of Motorola's Networking & Computing Systems Group. "Our Smart Packet Telephony 8102 platform enables the general market with a high-density, comprehensive packet telephony development solution. In addition, our new quad-core MSC8122 StarCore-based DSP will extend our market leadership in density, performance, and integration.”

“In-Stat/MDR expects the packet telephony gateway market to show strong double-digit growth over the next few years, and Motorola's products are well positioned to capitalize on that growth,” commented Norm Bogen, director of communications, Infrastructure & Services, In-Stat MDR. “Offering a broad range of channel densities on a common platform will enable Motorola's customers to deliver a product family while focusing on their own value added features.”

The modular design of Motorola’s Smart Packet Telephony platforms comprises a single MPC8260 baseboard and two daughter cards¯a public switched telephone network (PSTN) card, and a StarCore DSP-based farm card. The 8102 Packet Telephony Farm Card (PFC), unveiled today, joins the previously announced 8101 PFC offering. The 8102 PFC is a PCI telecom mezzanine card (PTMC) with five MSC8102 devices in a DSP farm array plus one MSC8101 that acts as an aggregator to the array. The 8102 PFC boosts the performance density of the Smart Packet Telephony platform to 672 high-density voice channels. Smart Packet Telephony 8101 and Smart Packet Telephony 8102 platforms provide designers with the necessary toolsets to evaluate and prototype mid- and high-density voice over IP (VoIP) systems.

“Motorola’s Smart Packet Telephony 8102 platform provides a strong foundation for our next-generation VoIP offering,” said Ben Lindow, Hardware Manager, NACT Telecommunications, a Verso Technologies Company, a leading manufacturer of next-generation VoIP network gateways. "With the Smart Packet Telephony 8102, we've been able to speed up the initial system design cycle, and customize a proven hardware platform to meet specific needs for our customers. This reference design significantly reduces our time to market and provided the flexibility needed to stand out in the telecommunication service provider market.”

In a separate release:

Developing sophisticated networking and telecom applications based on the industry-leading PowerQUICC™ architecture just got easier. Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today introduced high-performance power management, clock driver and Gigabit Ethernet transceiver integrated circuits (ICs) that are optimized for PowerQUICC communications processors containing the PowerPC™ core. Equipment manufacturers and designers developing PowerQUICC processor-based applications can now obtain complementary silicon solutions from the same company that pioneered the integrated communications processor¯Motorola.

The PowerQUICC family of processors is the industry's most widely used communications processor architecture, with nearly 83 percent market share, according to a May 2003 Gartner Dataquest report. The PowerQUICC architecture is at the heart of the world's most sophisticated networking and telecommunications systems. PowerQUICC processors deliver integrated control and forwarding plane functionality for a wide range of customer premises equipment (CPE), access and edge applications, such as digital subscriber line (xDSL) gateways, small office-home office (SOHO) and enterprise routers, home networking equipment, wireless LAN (WLAN) access points, wireless base stations, DSL access multiplexers (DSLAMs), telecom switching and transmission devices, and T1/E1 termination equipment.

"Motorola is enabling a comprehensive PowerQUICC ecosystem that includes power supplies, clocks, and Gigabit Ethernet transceivers optimized for the world's foremost communications processor architecture," said David Perkins, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola's Networking and Computing Systems Group. "The introduction of these Motorola ICs will help make it easier and more cost-efficient for networking and telecom equipment makers to acquire essential components from one trusted supplier for their PowerQUICC processor-based applications."