Willtek adds TD-SCDMA to 3G cellular handset testers based on picoChip software-defined radio

picoChip strengthens agreement with Willtek Communications – programmable baseband enables addition of TD-SCDMA testing to existing WCDMA and CDMA capability

picoChip today announced that Willtek Communications, a leading supplier of test equipment for wireless manufacturers and networks, has added support for TD-SCDMA to its range of software-defined 3G cellular handset testers. This announcement further strengthens picoChip’s agreement with Willtek, the company’s first customer from 2003.  As well as TD-SCDMA, Willtek’s testers based on picoChip programmable baseband technology already support WCDMA and 1xEV-DO, making the company unique in its product breadth.

Guillaume d'Eyssautier, President and CEO of picoChip, commented, “We are delighted to have Willtek as such a close partner.  Willtek was the company’s first design win and it is extremely gratifying that they have used our technology to develop such a strong portfolio of independently developed standards.  Testing and conformance is a highly critical component to 3G with its extreme complexity, and it is notable for the TD-SCDMA market that Willtek can support its deployment with this.”

Matthias Weber, Director of Product Marketing of Willtek Communications added, “picoChip technology continues to lead the pack with its flexibility and performance.  We originally selected picoChip so that we could address multiple standards: with the launch of TD-SCDMA we now have three protocols on the same platform, all developed extremely efficiently.”

Industry observers expect China to offer a 3G service by 2008, when the Olympic Games will be held there. In the meantime, a new operational trial of TD-SCDMA, the home-grown 3G standard, commenced on November 7 in Beijing, Shanghai and three other cities in China. The trial TD-SCDMA network involves 20,000 subscribers.

TD-SCDMA was developed in China, and is one of the three Third Generation mobile standards in use in the world. The new services, which include video conferencing, movie downloads and multi-player 3D games, are expected to create a huge new market for telecom equipment makers, mobile carriers and service providers.

picoChip provides software-defined radio solutions to address the key challenges of cost, development time and flexibility for the next generation of wireless systems.  The company’s multi-core processors deliver a world-beating price/performance combination.  Uniquely, the company also delivers complete, standards-compliant reference designs for UMTS (HSDPA, upgradeable to HSUPA) and WiMAX/WiBro (both 802.16d and 802.16e, with support for AAS and MIMO).  802.16-based systems using picoChip are available from Airspan, Intel, Ericsson, M/A-Com, Marconi, Nortel and a number of other manufacturers.  The company also has strategic relationships with ETRI and Korea Telecom in Korea and both ICT and BUPT in China.  picoChip technology is also being used to develop other 4G wireless protocols such as UMTS-LTE, 802.20 and TD-SCDMA.