Working closely with equipment and infrastructure vendors, Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc. (FMA) is readying a new system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution for the broadband wireless access market based on the WiMAX (Wireless Microwave Access) standard. FMA is targeting an early 2005 launch of this single-chip solution that integrates both PHY and MAC functionality. It is designed for deployment in base stations and subscriber stations.

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As a board member of the WiMAX Forum, FMA supports the standards development and compliance programs that are essential to successful deployment, according to Keith Horn, vice president of marketing for Fujitsu Microelectronics America.

"Fujitsu's experience and expertise in networking and communications technology, along with its advanced process technologies, enable its design teams to develop the high-performance silicon required to realize cost-effective deployment of broadband wireless," he said. WiMAX-compliant silicon is expected by the beginning of 2005. Its adoption in infrastructure and subscriber equipment is expected to accelerate in the second half of 2005 and throughout 2006.

Early implementations will begin in base station configurations designed for single standalone units, as well as for much more complex rack-mounted systems and blade servers that work alongside wireline network systems. Device technology also will be deployed in WiMAX-certified subscriber stations that are anticipated to cost much less than the custom stations currently used in the relatively small number of broadband wireless deployments in the United States.

Horn said he expects WiMAX-certified broadband access to enable high bandwidth metro area networks for home and small business users, along with backhaul networks for cellular base stations and connections to the Internet.