picoChip’s complete certified reference designs have become de facto standards in the WiMAX market. They are deployed in volume and used by more OEMs and carriers than any other – including leading names such as Intel and Airspan. And they are specified by AT4 Wireless, the WiMAX Forum’s preferred certification lab, as its “golden modem”.

Because picoChip’s reference designs are fully-tested, fully-integrated, system-level solutions which implement the complete WiMAX PHY+MAC, customers using them benefit from fast time-to-market with first-time success at reduced development cost. The picoChip PC6530 reference design, for example, is the only complete system that can meet the aggressive cost and performance targets required in femtocell deployments. And our architecture is scalable: the same PHY can be used in macro-basestations, picocells and femtocells, maximizing return-on-investment and reducing risk.

Our software-defined approach has already allowed us to demonstrate an upgrade path from our established PC8520 802.16d solution to the PC8530 802.16e Wave 1 reference design. We are also shipping the PC8532 software upgrade which fully supports 802.16e Wave 2.

This same strategy has extended our software roadmap to encompass new capabilities such as AAS, MIMO and Wave 3 (Release 1.x). We are committed to support the emerging 802.16j specification that will allow the deployment of a low-cost relay station network architecture. Further ahead, the picoArray provides all of the performance that will be necessary to deliver even higher data rates, as 802.16m extends the standard to become a genuine 4G specification.

The picoArray’s performance advantages have a dramatic impact, even today. They mean that our solutions have reduced bill-of-materials and lower power dissipation. We can meet or exceed all the performance requirements of the IEEE802.16 standard in static, multipath and co-channel interference conditions for all modulation schemes. This increased performance translates directly into increased range, more coverage and better network economics for carriers.