The picoXcell PC312 HSPA+ femtocell system-on-a-chip (SoC) from picoChip supports eight users with simultaneous voice and data services. It also offers 64QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and 3GPP Release 7 features for high-speed communication. As the newest addition to the picoXcell PC3xx family of single-chip femtocells, it is fully pin-compatible with its predecessors for a seamless migration path.

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Also, the picoXcell PC312 integrates added features such as security and timing while satisfying the new functionality requirements of 3GPP Release 8 for a Home NodeB. It supports the Femto Forum standard FRMI interface and includes a glueless interface to many radios, including those from Maxim, Analog Devices, Lime Microsystems, and Bitwave.

The SoC can support up to 21-Mbit/s HSDPA together with 5.7-Mbit/s HSUPA on a single chip. It is a low-power, low-cost complete femtocell solution with integrated physical layer (PHY), RNC stack, synchronization, network listen, and Radio Resource Management solutions. Its flexible architecture also enables customers to easily add value and upgrade designs as markets develop, according to picoChip.

Functionally, the picoXcell PC312 consists of a 3GPP NodeB modem, an ARM11 processor, a cryptographic engine, high-speed accelerators, and peripherals to support HSPA+ FAP requirements. It integrates all of the baseband processing requirements from digital samples to and from RF, through to network interfacing, enabling a very low system bill of materials cost and component count.

Software support is provided for 3GPP Release 7 HSPA+ FDD, reducing development effort and time. RNC stacks that have been optimized for the picoXcell PC312 and suit the support of a variety of network interface architectures such as the 3GPP Release 8 HNB Iuh interface to femtocell gateways are available. 

picoChip

The picoXcell PC312 HSPA+ femtocell SoC from picoChip supports eight users with simultaneous voice and data services. It also offers 64QAM and 3GPP Release 7 features for high-speed communication.