freescale semiconductor

ALSO NOTED: Freescale's chairman and CEO steps down; Ericsson introduces HSPA phone platform; and much more...

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:59:51 -0500

> Freescale Semiconductor announced that Michel Mayer, chairman and CEO, has decided to step down. Release

> Ericsson introduced an HSPA multimedia phone platform based on TI's OMAP silicon designed to support all open operating systems. Article

> Motorola unveiled two new 802.16e Wave 2-ready WiMAX devices. Release

> Clearwire has selected Beceem's WiMAX chipset solution for its mobile WiMAX trial in Portland. Release

And Finally... InformationWeek reviews 802.11n routers. Article

ALSO NOTED: Freescale pulls out of UWB Forum ; More hotels offering WiFi; and much more...

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:00:50 -0400

> Freescale Semiconductor is pulling out of the UWB Forum, which it co-founded with Motorola and Pulse-Link. The forum was founded in 2004 in an effort to rally support around Freescale's direct-sequence UWB signaling and to compete with what has now become the WiMedia Alliance. Report

> More and more hotels now offer WiFi service. Beware: Many hotel networks come with but rudimentary security. Report

> Pittsburgh City Council considers city-wide WiFi. Article

> A community wireless hotspot is a nice idea, but it will not be applicable in the U.S. for at least a few more years, as mobile WiMAX will not arrive in the U.S. until 2008 at the earliest. Analysis

> Nortel bolsters WiMAX position with portfolio enhancements, new customers. Article

> Alcatel, Lucent and Redline Communications have submitted bids to build a fixed wireless high-speed broadband system in Malaysia (note that Alcatel and Lucent have announced merger plans). Report

And Finally... You are listening to music in one room of your house, say, the living room, but need to go the your study to do some work; but you want to continue to listen to same piece of music. You can spend thousands of dollars wiring your house for music-in-every-room, or you can do it on the cheap by buying this WiFi system from Sonos. Specs

Freescale RF LDMOS technology for WiMax in 3.5 GHz

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 19:01:39 -0500

Two cheers for Freescale Semiconductor: With its seventh-generation high-voltage (HV7) RF LDMOS technology, it has managed to achieve the RF power amplifier performance required for use in WiMax base stations operating in the 3.5 GHz band. This is another important step forward for WiMax: It appears to be the first time RF Laterally Diffused Metal Oxide Semiconductor (LDMOS) technology from any manufacturer has met these power challenges. Freescale already offers a portfolio of 12V GaAs Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor (PHEMT) products. It says it will continue development of high-voltage GaAs PHEMT technology which will result in higher-power GaAs devices for use in WiMax system designs and other applications between 2 GHz and 6 GHz. By adding power transistors in RF LDMOS to its GaAs PHEMT technology offerings, Freescale's RF solutions now support practically any high-power wireless infrastructure application, with LDMOS performance up to 3.8 GHz and GaAs PHEMT performance up to 6 GHz.

Samples of the initial 3.5 GHz LDMOS device are available now. The MRF7S38075H is a 75 Watt P1dB RF transistor capable of 42dBm (16W) average power while meeting WiMax performance requirements over the 3.5 GHz band. Samples of 40W and 10W P1dB 3.5 GHz devices will likely be available in February. Advanced HV7 LDMOS devices complement 12V GaAs PHEMT devices for 3.5 GHz WiMax applications, but the new high-voltage GaAs devices currently under development will operate up to 6 GHz. With an operating voltage above 20V, the GaAs devices will achieve output powers as high as 100W while still keeping within the stringent demands of digitally modulated systems. Samples of Freescale's first high-voltage GaAs PHEMTs are expected to be available in Q3 2006.

For more on Freescale's new solutions
-see products specs at company Web site
-and see this Houston Chronicle report

BACKGROUND: WiMax systems use a 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signal. QAM OFDM signaling thus has advantages, but it also presents distinct challenges to the design of power amplifiers. RF power transistor linearity in back-off is critical not only in its spectral form with mask requirements, but also in its quadrature form with the EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) requirement. Before Freescale's announcement, silicon LDMOS technology did not offer an acceptable level of RF power performance at 3.5 GHz, meaning that compound semiconductor devices, such as GaAs PHEMTs, were the only choice available for designers. Freescale's advanced 3.5 GHz HV7 LDMOS devices now offer the efficiency, linearity, and EVM performance required by WiMax systems, providing designers with a choice between compound semiconductors and silicon LDMOS. As we said above, this is an important step forward for WiMax.

UWB standard group to disband

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 19:01:37 -0500

Remember Don Meredith? He was on the original team of Monday Night Football commentators, together with Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, and Fran Tarkenton (and before that, a Dallas Cowboys quarterback in the 1960s). At the end of lopsided games, with his heavy Texas drawl, he would begin to sing: "Turn out the lights, the party's over." Meredith may well be in Hawaii now, singing that song to the IEEE 802.15.3a task group on UWB. It appears that after three years of agony, the group will agree to disband itself. This will be the only thing on which it could agree: Since it was formed in 2002, the group has been riven by a bitter debate over the UWB standard. At the beginning there were many proposals for the specifications of the 480 Mbps short-range technology, but eventually the number of proposals was reduced to two: Freescale Semiconductor's direct-sequence UWB and the WiMedia Alliance's multiband orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) alternative (supported by TI, Intel, Staccato Communications, Wisair, and others). Since mid-2003, the battle between the two groups resembles the trench warfare of WWI: Accusations and charges lobbed in every direction, but no movement. Neither side has been able to gain the required 75 percent majority needed for confirmation, with each side going over the 50 percent, then falling behind, only to climb back again. While the stalemate continued, Pulse-Link came along and introduced its own form of UWB, based on Common Signaling Mode, which allows various forms of UWB to coexist. The WiMedia Alliance was adamant, insisting on a single UWB implementation. Now the market will decide, as it decided years ago between Beta and VHS.

For more on the UWB working group
-see Patrick Mannion's Commsdesigns report

Freescale UWB pushes into consumer electronics

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 20:01:36 -0400

The UWB standard war is raging on, but that hasn't stopped one of the combatants, Freescale Semiconductor, from moving forward. The company has been active, with the help of Chinese consumer electronics giant Haier, in promoting its silicon in the consumer electronics market. Freescale's UWB technology is based on one developed by Xtreme Spectrum, which Freescale acquired (together with Xtreme's capable founder, Martin Rofheart) in late 2003. What used to be Xtreme's Trinity UWB is now sold by Freescale as the XS 110 chip set. This three-chip solution supports 110 Mbps at ranges of up to 20 m, consuming 750 mW. The XS 110 is priced at $19.95 in volume.

Freescale is working on improving both speed and power consumption. Its new two-chip UWB solution will offer about 500 Mbps with a 660 Mbps PHY.The new XS 660 chip set will be scalable, the company said, consuming roughly 1 mW for every megabit of data bandwidth: Thus, a 500 Mb data stream will consume roughly 500 mW, which Rofheart said is half the power required by the 802.11 WiFi technology.

Freescale plans to announce details of the XS 660 chip set next month, with sampling expected late this year and sales in 2006. The chip set was "retaped," Rofheart said, in order to take advantage of Freescale's 90-nanometer process, which required new libraries and other supporting design collateral. The XS 660 will add about $10 to the bill of materials of emerging applications, such as surround-sound stereo systems or automotive displays, he said. In parallel, Haier and Japanese company Silex Technology keep showing various implementations of UWB chips in consumer devices--HDTV, digital media servers, camcorders and more.

For more on Freescale's UWB:
- see David Lammers' commdesigns report

WiMedia, Ecma to push UWB standardization

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 20:01:39 -0400

Some stories have a happy ending. Such is the case with the 802.11n standard skirmishes which ended two weeks ago when the two competing coalitions ceased fire and began to work on reconciling their differences. Other stories end less happily, with an all-out war and real winners and losers. Such was the case in the late 1970s when home videocassette players hit the market. A war erupted between VHS and Sony's Betamax system. Beta had many advantages over VHS, but by the 1980s it had lost the war, and customers who had gambled on it had to switch to VHS, which became the standard.

The UWB situation is coming to resemble the Beta-VHS situation. The latest move was taken by the WiMedia Alliance. Earlier this week it announced that it was working with Ecma International to establish the WiMedia MB-OFDM UWB platform as the global UWB standard. Ecma, established in 1961, is a non-profit industry association of technology developers, vendors, and users. It is known for its development of DVD interchange standards, scripting languages, and other standards in information, communications technology, and consumer electronics.

WiMedia hopes that its work with Ecma will make it possible to complete the process of establishing a recognized international standard by the end of this year, which will correspond to WiMedia standard-based UWB product launches.

For more on the state of UWB standard war:
- see the WiMedia Alliance's website
- check out Ecma International's website
- read this press release

BACKGROUND: UWB sends a very low-power signal over a large portion of bandwidth. The weakness of the signal and the fact that it is sent in a brief pulse means that equipment operating in the spectrum for which the FCC has licensed UWB -- a 7.5 GHz band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz -- is unable even to notice the UWB signal.

There are two competing UWB coalitions. One is led by Motorola-spin-off Freescale Semiconductor. Freescale's technology uses the full 7.5 GHz in one long stretch but with a filter that excludes the unlicensed 5 GHz band used by 802.11a. Freescale already has production chips and reference designs, but no products shipping yet. Chinese consumer electronic giant Haier will soon bring out a Freescale-based UWB HDTV.

The competing group is the WiMedia Alliance, which counts Intel, Kodak, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, and many other leading companies among its members. A few months ago, the WiMedia Alliance merged with the Multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA). It was a helpful merger as MBOA was formed to work on the PHY while WiMedia was established to work on the MAC layer. WiMedia divides UWB into several smaller bands, allowing some bands to be turned off (for example, a range in the 5 GHz to allow for 802.11a, or other swaths of spectrum to comply with regulations in other countries). OFDM is used within each band.

For an through analysis of the state of UWB:
- see Glenn Fleishman's MobilePipeline discussion

ALSO: UWB solutions developer Wisair said its UWB chipset development system had received FCC certification approval. This makes Wisair the first MBOA-based WiMedia Alliance member to receive FCC certification. Report