Systemonic (Dresden, Germany), a developer of instruction-level parallel DSP technology, said HiperSonicT addresses both the HiperLAN-2 and IEEE 802.11a broadband wireless standards by using a VLIW-based DSP architecture to implement the physical layer of both standards with software. The company has previously claimed that its DSP architecture, now called OnDSPT, could be programmed to address orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) or discrete multitone (DMT) modulation. According to reports, the approach uses a so-called "tagged-VLIW" technique to support instruction words of up to 200-bit widths while remaining code-efficient.

The HiperLAN-2 and IEEE 802.11a wireless LAN standards operate at 5 GHz and are expected to allow delivery of information at data rates of tens of megabits per second, much higher than current wireless data delivery.

"We estimate the market opportunity created by the new HiperLAN-2 and IEEE 802.11a standards to be worth several billion dollars by 2004, representing a growing portion of the $19 billion wireless IC market," said Karl Lange, executive vice president of sales and marketing and acting chief executive officer of Systemonic. "HiperSonicT's specific capability to meet both standards, and the emerging need for broadband wireless mobile Internet access driven by killer applications such as Internet TV, places Systemonic in a position to play a dominant role in this new marketplace."

Gerhard Fettweis, cofounder and chief technology officer at Systemonic, added: "Our application-specific OnDSPT approach is breakthrough technology and potentially applicable to all new broadband wireless industry standards. This includes the Japanese MMAC and any new, higher-bandwidth version of Bluetooth, further demonstrating our unique flexibility. The dual-mode HiperSonicT is a first step toward a unified hardware platform for the upcoming broadband wireless standards in the 5-GHz range."

Systemonic said HiperSonicT chip sets would begin shipping during the first quarter of 2001.