Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2009 - (Page 4)

4 NEWS IN BRIEF Ubiquisys and picoChip collaborate on femtocells Ubiquisys, a 3G femtocell company, and picoChip have announced that they are working together to integrate the picoChip PC302 processor into the Ubiquisys ZoneGate femtocell. To this end, picoChip will continue to be one of Ubiquisys’ strategic suppliers, extending a ﬁve-year working relationship. The picoChip PC302 is a highly integrated baseband processor that offers a combination of high performance and low cost. It is designed to support the advanced features of the ZoneGate femtocell, such as cognitive radio techniques, grid technology and application services. Current ZoneGate femtocells use picoChip’s PC202 processor, and this experience has informed the development of the PC302. www.mwee.com/212901937 AWR adds parallelized 3D FEM EM simulation with acquisition AWR has announced that it has acquired Simulation Technology and Applied Research, Inc., (STAAR), of Mequon, WI, a developer of 3D parallelized FEM tools for EM simulation of components and subsystems operating at RF and microwave frequencies. STAAR is now a whollyowned subsidiary of AWR Corporation, retaining its operations and facilities in Wisconsin, and under the continued guidance of STAAR founder Dr. John DeFord. AWR chose STAAR after spending much of 2008 evaluating 3D EM technologies and ﬁrms in response to customer demand for a seamlesslyintegrated 3D FEM tool within the AWR Design Environment™. AWR concluded the acquisition of STAAR in December 2008, at the end of another record-breaking quarter for the company. For the year, sales grew in excess of 22 percent over 2007, driven by strong demand for the company’s new AXIEM 3D planar EM simulator. STAAR, a proﬁtable company that was launched in 1997, has developed proprietary parallelized 3D FEM EM simulation and analysis capability, which is embodied in its Analyst software. This software is the result of more than a decade of development at STAAR in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense and U. S. Department of Energy, and has been employed to analyze extremely-complex RF and microwave structures at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and Naval Research Laboratory. Analysis of EM ﬁelds in complex structures, such as complete Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs), densely-populated RF circuit boards, and multifunction modules, frequently requires large amounts of memory and processing power that can overburden even the most capable of today’s “high-end” workstations. Many of these problems can be solved, but with limited accuracy for want of greater system resources. Analyst software addresses this deﬁciency by employing scalable decomposition algorithms to optimize cluster computing resources, resulting in dramatically reduced computation times, improved accuracy, and a greater return on investment in computer hardware. By supporting both shared- and distributed-memory systems, the Analyst 3D FEM EM tool is easily conﬁgured to work with common computing architectures. www.mwee.com/212901295 Design win for Antenova’s seven-band antenna Antenova has announced that its high performance seven-band mobile broadband antenna is in mass production in what is claimed to be the lightest notebook computer in its 13.3-inch LCD class from a leading Korean consumer electronics company. In addition to 3G cellular mobile broadband capability, the company’s full diversity seven-band antenna provides dual-band Wi-Fi® connectivity for an always connected experience. Designated DATANOVA®, these mobile broadband antennas for notebook computers and ultra mobile personal computers (UMPCs) offer a wide choice of wireless broadband connectivity options with superior performance. The antennas can cover all or as many of the CDMA/GSM, 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, UWB and GPS bands in a single structure. In the near future ultra-thin lower proﬁle versions of DATANOVA antennas will be available for the next generation notebooks and UMPCs. www.mwee.com/212901330 BLACKFIN enables single-chip solution for DAB/DAB+/DMB receivers Analog Devices (ADI) have announced that the latest version of DAB/DAB+/DMB (Digital Audio Broadcasting/Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) middleware from Factum Electronics AB is now available on ADI’s low-power, highperformance Blackﬁn® BF5xx processors. Pairing the Blackﬁn processor with Factum middleware enables a single-chip module that claims to be the industry’s ﬁrst to bring DLS (Dynamic Label Segment), SLS (Slideshow), and EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) data services together with audio, image, and video decoding capabilities for the next generation of handheld mobile receivers and kitchen radios with displays or screens. Receivers equipped to handle multimedia formats, including text and images, supported by the growing set of the Eureka 147 family of DAB/ DAB+/DMB standards require a processor able to deliver high performance at low power, and ● in a small form factor. Applications with these design demands beneﬁt from the converged microcontroller and signal processor functionality provided by Blackﬁn. This DSP + MCU convergent processing drives down bill-of-materials cost for digital radio receivers and other price-sensitive consumer electronics products. Factum’s complete range of middleware modules for data services not only reduces development time for receiver manufacturers, but also they support receiver stability and quality of service. Offerings include FIC (Fast Information Channel), DLS, SLS, EPG, TPEG (Transport Protocol Experts Group), and BWS (Broadcast Website). Details about the Eureka 147 family of standards are available from The WorldDMB Forum at www.worlddab.org. www.mwee.com/212902712 Microwave Engineering Europe ● January/February 2009 www.mwee.com http://www.mwee.com/212901937 http://www.mwee.com/212901295 http://www.worlddab.org http://www.mwee.com/212902712 http://www.mwee.com/212901330 http://www.mwee.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2009

Microwave Engineering Europe - January 2009 News Contents Comment Using KPIs to Ensure Quality in a Converging Network Amplifier Error Vector Magnitude Characterisation Using High-Speed Modular PXI Instruments GPS: Making a Play for Femtocells Accelerating Global WiMAX Adoption: The Move to Picocell and Femtocell Base Stations Addressing PA Efficiency for Multi-Mode Wideband Handset Applications Wi-Fi: Mobile Feature or Fundamental RAN? Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - January/February 2009

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