SDIO Module Makes A Big Splash At WiMAX World

Oct 17, 2008 3:22 PM, MD&D News Staff

At WiMAX World 2008 in Chicago Altair Semiconductor showed off its prowess as a leader in the fabless-chip market for handhelds with its low-power WiMAX chipset for mobile solutions. At the exhibit, Altair put its ALT2150-based SDIO module up to the tests at the WiMAX Live – Low Power CPE Chipset Shootout, and not only exceeded a 3G power consumption target, but achieved the best WiMAX power-consumption rating of the session.

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According to the tests, which were conducted with Agilent Technologies’ equipment and a Wintegra base station, the ALT2150 clocked in with 9.5 hours for VoIP battery talk time and 15 hours of data messaging. And, according to Altair, the tests yielded results of at least 50% better power performance than other modules tested in downloads at 5 Mbytes/s (230 mW), uploads at 2 Mbytes/s (250 mW), VoIP (161 mW), and video streaming (49 mW).

“Keeping power consumption low starts at the core of a device—with the semiconductor,” said Eran Eshed, VP of marketing and business development, and a co-founder of Altair. “The ALT2150 results had proven that power consumption is no longer a gating factor in designing ultra-low power consumption handsets, MIDs, and consumer electronic devices.”