PicoChip launches public-access femtocell chip

LONDON – PicoChip Ltd. (Bath, England) has announced the PC333, a chip designed to form the baseband for public-access femtocells.

The PC333 supports 32 channels of simultaneous voice and HSPA+ data, MIMO antenna scheme, soft handover and the Local Area Basestation (LABS) standard from the 3G Project Partnership (3GPP).

Whereas PicoChip's established devices, the PC302 and PC312 are suited to residential systems, the PC333 is optimized for small basestations for urban hot-spots, city-centers or public access, the company said.

LABS calls for 120-kph mobility and +24-dBm output power for greater than 2-km range. The PC333 can support 32 channels and more than 400 smart phone users at the same time. Two of the devices can also be cascaded to support 64 active channels.

The chip, manufactured for PicoChip by TSMC in a 65-nm process technology is due to sample to some customers in 4Q2010. The company did not state the price of the chip in volume or when volume supplies would be available.

Related link and articles:

www.picochip.com

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