Wireless platform licensing and semiconductor solutions supplier for wireless communications Redpine Signals, Inc. has unwrapped a low-power licensable 802.11b/g wireless LAN (WLAN) platform labeled Pine1-LP. Drawing less than 170 mA [377 mW] for the complete SDIO/SPI-based WLAN reference design during a 54 Mbps FTP download, it is the lowest power licensable 802.11b/g platform, claims Redpine Signals. For VoIP calls, it draws only 12.5 mA [35.6 mW], said the developer.

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Building on its successful track record on Pine1, the Redpine’s Pine1-LP represents the second-generation leading-edge WLAN architecture and a significant innovation in embedded software development by the company. With its combined baseband media access controller (MAC) core size of less than 6 mm2 (using 130 nm CMOS process), and industry-leading low-power profile, Pine1-LP is suited for integration into low-power, cost-sensitive applications such as, single and dual-mode mobile handsets, PDAs, digital cameras, MP3 players, gaming and printing platforms.

"Extensive use of low-power design techniques at the architecture, physical and system levels enables fine grain control of power in the various portions of the WLAN system including RF transceiver, power amplifier, and DAC/ADCs using patent pending algorithms in the BBP/MAC and associated software,” said Balraj Singh, vice president of marketing, Redpine Signals. “In addition, the extremely small footprint of the Pine1-LP baseband MAC and comprehensive set of SoC integration deliverables now enables integration of a WLAN interface into cost- and power-sensitive SoCs.”

The Pine1-LP WLAN reference-design Platform provides all the features essential for supporting WLAN integration into smart handheld devices including Bluetooth coexistence, SDIO and SPI host interfaces, PMIC support, minimal requirement on host MIPS and interrupt latency, multiple frequency oscillator support, and drivers for popular operating systems such as Windows CE.

The Pine1-LP low-power 802.11b/g platform is a complete standards-compliant solution for low-power mobile applications. It includes a baseband MAC, analog front-end (AFE), an 802.11b/g RF transceiver and power amplifiers (PA), as well as SDIO and SPI host interfaces. While the RF transceiver and PA are on a single chip supplied by Taiwan’s Airoha Technologies, the AFE is integrated with the baseband MAC. The baseband MAC chip is expected to be available toward the year-end. Meanwhile, the platform uses dicrete and FPGA based MAC solution.

The SDIO interface is specifically designed to support full 54 Mbps 802.11g data rates. The Pine1-LP MAC, which supports the new 802.11i (security) and 802.11e (QoS) standards is based on a unique programmable packet engine, which off-loads all WLAN packet processing and TCP checksum calculations from the host resulting in lower power and increased system performance. Furthermore, the Pine1-LP platform supports Bluetooth coexistence in the 2.4 GHz band with popular Bluetooth chips. In addition, it includes an extensive suite of firmware and driver support for Linux, Windows CE 5.0 and other popular operating systems.