4G Wireless Evolution: Altair Semi Readies TD-LTE Reference Design - TMCNET

http://4g-wirelessevolution.tmcnet.com/topics/4g-wirelessevolution/articles/93683-altair-semi-readies-td-lte-reference-design.htm
TMCNET
Ashok Bindra

July 30, 2010
 
Ultra-low power 4G chipset supplier Altair Semiconductor, has released a new TD-LTE terminal reference design for use in a range of products, including USB dongles, data cards, CPEs and handheld devices.

Featuring its field proven FourGee 3100/6200 chipset and a complete interoperability-tested long term evolution software stack, the time division LTE (TD-LTE) reference design supports India’s recently auctioned TD-LTE band 40 and China’s band 38, and a variety of other bands which are being tested and deployed in Japan, North America and Europe.

According to Altair, the reference design is a unified TDD/FDD architecture that utilizes a single chipset and a single software stack to deliver a small form factor and cost efficient integration for multimode devices.

"The demand for TD-LTE products, mainly in emerging markets such as India and China, is rapidly increasing, forcing carriers to develop cost-effective solutions for this growing segment," said Eran Eshed, co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development at Altair Semiconductor, in a released statement. "Thanks to the maturity of Altair’s FD-LTE solution which had sampled in September 2009, and the extensive testing it had undergone with most tier one infrastructure vendors, releasing a TD-LTE version was a logical next step for us, ” added Eshed in the same release.

TD-LTE, a 4G wireless standard which was designed to operate in unpaired spectrum, is emerging as the de-facto 4G standard for TDD spectrum globally. Since China Mobile’s selection of TD-LTE as its 4G upgrade path, TD-LTE has received strong support from carriers such as Reliance Industries (RIL),Softbank Mobile and others in Europe and North America as well as from carriers such as Yota, which recently announced a strategic shift from WiMAX to LTE.

Recently, Altair announced a partnership with San Francisco-based IPWireless to develop a suite of multi-band LTE modem products that will support key frequency bands ideally suited to global LTE deployments. The companies will integrate Altair’s cutting-edge software-defined radio (SDR) baseband processor into IPWireless’ LTE devices. The first consumer-friendly LTE USB modem device will support multiple frequency bands including the 800 MHz digital dividend band, 1800 MHz and TD-LTE’s 2.5 GHz. Subsequent devices will also support the entire US 700 MHz and AWS frequencies.