Wifi Revolution

BitWave Semiconductor (News - Alert) is launching its BW1102 Softransceiver RFIC, claiming it to be the world’s first programmable CMOS RF transceiver.

 

The BW1102 is a single low power chip which is being targeted at the cellular handset and femtocell markets. The BW1102 product is fully software configurable across all channels in the frequency bands between 700 MHz and 3.8 GHz, according to BitWave officials. 

 

Officials said that this capability allows the BW1102 to be configured for multiple wireless protocols such as GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSDPA, CDMA2K, EVDO, 802.11b/g and 802.16d/e

 

The new BW1102 Softransceiver RFIC allows wireless consumer applications to switch between multiple frequency bands and wireless communication protocols. Officials pointed out that using the BW1102 in wireless designs allows manufacturers to “reduce component count, lower BOM costs and improve time to market.”

 

Additionally, the BW1102 can be reconfigured to support new bands, such as the 700 MHz band -- which is expected to be available in the U.S. in 2009 -- or new protocols, such as LTE (News - Alert), the next generation protocol in the UMTS family.

 

Officials explained that the flexibility of multiple wireless bands and multiple protocols of operation is achieved using software mode files, and this feature provides the BW1102 Softransceiver with the ability to be at the core of multiple product designs.

 

In addition, BitWave’s programmable RF transceivers is also expected to lower the BOM cost for handset and femtocell manufacturers as a single chip can replace multiple transceivers that would otherwise be necessary in multi-band/multi-protocol designs, according to officials.

 

The BW1102 is built on a standard digital CMOS process, and the transceiver integrates all requisite RF, analog, mixed-signal and digital circuitry and also includes built-in test and calibration.

 

In addition to supporting a very wide range of wireless voice or data technologies, the BW1102 Softransceiver RFIC is also expected to support multiple baseband processors.

 

Claiming that with the BW1102 Softransceiver his company has made wireless connectivity simple,' Michael Farese, CEO at BitWave, commented in a press statement, “Handset designers can now easily provide one model that works on any network, at any frequency, using any protocol, anywhere.”

 

He also said that Femtocell (News - Alert) manufacturers can future-proof their designs by utilizing the field programmability feature of the BW1102 Softransceiver to upgrade their designs to support additional protocols or bands.

 

The company plans to begin shipping BW1102 samples to customers during the next month, and volume production shipments are expected to begin during Q3 2008.

 

 

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