Texas Instruments Newest Communications Infrastructure Technology Prepares Service Providers For Wimax And Beyond

DSP-based Solution Enables Manufacturers to Roll out Advanced WiMAX Infrastructure Technologies More Quickly.

DALLAS (Feb. 27, 2006) - Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) [NYSE: TXN] today announced its newest 1 GHz DSP-based 802.16e base station solution, enabling its customers to develop customized, high-performance WiMAX systems. This new product supports the mobile WiMAX standard and addresses the growing market need for this emerging technology. TI’s newest WiMAX infrastructure solution incorporates the TMS320TCI6482 high-performance DSP, optimized baseband software and development tools. For more information, please visit www.ti.com/wimaxwi.

“The quick ratification of the 802.16e mobile WiMAX standard late last year, indicates a strong interest by the technology’s supporters to bring products to market at the same time as other advanced wireless standards, like 3G EV-DO and HSDPA,” said Gemma Tedesco, In-Stat senior analyst. “Additionally, the WiMAX chipset market is anticipated to reach $950 million by 2009, offering companies like TI a unique opportunity to capitalize on this quickly-growing industry, while developing technologies similar to those that have given them strong market leadership.”

Reusing Technology to Meet Future Demands

TI’s flexible system solution supports both fixed and mobile applications across multiple frequency bands. This flexibility enables equipment manufacturers to create cost-effective system configurations that can be used for multiple WiMAX applications including cellular backhaul, rural deployments, portable mobility and last mile connectivity.


At the heart of TI’s solution for WiMAX is the TMS320TCI6482 DSP, designed for wireless infrastructure applications. TI’s 1 GHz DSP improves cost and power per channel by efficiently processing WiMAX physical layer, IFFT/FFT and MIMO/beamforming algorithms. The programmable DSP-based solution can be easily software upgraded in the field to support advanced features, thereby protecting manufacturers’ and service providers’ initial technology investment.

Complementing the TCI6482 DSP is a commercial quality software library implementing key physical layer functions of the WiMAX standard. The highly optimized and tested software reduces product development time, while allowing manufacturers to customize the software and add their own intellectual property. TI’s phased software development approach enables customers to get to market quickly with a working system, while allowing them to use additional software components to add capabilities and services over time. This level of flexibility is very important to the manufacturers who need to differentiate their product offering from their competitors.

Creating a WiMAX solution using TI’s DSP and software libraries is made easier through the use of TI’s leading software development environment and hardware platforms. TI’s new Platinum Edition of its Code Composer Studio Integrated Development Environment is available today, providing new debug and code profiling features for the TCI6482 DSP. Further, hardware platforms are available from TI and its third party partners in a variety of form factors, including ATCA Mezzanine Cards (AMC) housing one or multiple TCI6482 DSPs. The combination of high performance, programmable DSPs, application libraries and the right development tools allow equipment manufacturers to get started easily and get to market quickly with highly flexible, differentiated WiMAX basestation solutions.

“Our customers are asking for a flexible and cost-effective means of supporting WiMAX networks,” said Sandeep Kumar, TI’s wireless infrastructure strategic marketing manager. “TI’s solutions make it easier for them to upgrade their systems to support advanced features as WiMAX evolves. Additionally, because our solutions are based on programmable DSPs, our customers can reuse their hardware and software to support other emerging OFDM standards.”

Broad Portfolio of Products for Advanced WiMAX Base Stations

TI’s new DSP-based solution for WiMAX joins an already robust set of products available from TI to address this emerging standard. Last year, TI announced its broad line of radio frequency chipsets for 2.5GHz, 3.5GHz and 5.8GHz frequencies. TI has also announced today a new member of its radio frequency (RF) family, the TRF3703, an ultra-low-noise 4 GHz quadrature modulator. With a seamless interface to TI’s high-speed DAC5687 digital-to-analog converter (DAC), the new quadrature modulator provides a direct means of converting baseband or intermediate frequency (IF) signals to RF transmission levels.


Availability

TI’s new WiMAX base station solution includes the TCI6482 DSP and highly optimized symbol rate and chip rate software libraries. The solution is currently available, with full production expected later this year.


For more information on this product and TI’s complete line of communications infrastructure solutions, please visit www.ti.com/wi.

Contact Information

Sharon Hampton

Texas Instruments Incorporated

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