picoChip’s software-programmable SoC products provide an ideal hardware platform for implementing femtocell designs based on any, or many, standards. A software-based solution also allows graceful evolution as standards change: for example, our customers can seamlessly upgrade their WiMAX designs from Wave 1 to Wave 2 and MIMO; and our WCDMA design can be migrated from HSDPA to HSUPA.

This same flexibility — coupled with the extreme processing power of the multicore picoArray architecture — makes it easy to realize system solutions for other existing and emerging standards, such as WiBro (Korea’s version of mobile WiMAX). Through a combination of in-house engineering expertise and active partnerships with third party design centers and research groups, we can support customers in developing femtocells for any standard. Current areas of activity include GSM/GPRS/EDGE and TD-SCDMA.

The capabilities of the picoArray also make it a natural platform for development of next-generation technologies such as the OFDMA and MIMO techniques that are likely to be used in future 4G networks. This puts picoChip at the forefront of work on UMTS-LTE (Long Term Evolution), IEEE 802.16m and IEEE 802.20 (MBWA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) and China’s recently announced 4G FuTURE project.