Wireless

Efficient development of Wireless product and technology requires a combination of design innovation and judicious reuse of pre-existing Intellectual Property (IP).  An effective combination of modern ideas with proven design blocks, helps speed up and de-risk the development process.

Over many years Cambridge Consultants has invested in a range of valuable design blocks that can be reused in wireless designs.  This extensive portfolio of proven wireless intellectual property includes:

Silicon radio IP library

A library of analogue and digital building blocks suitable for use in RFICs, and digital devices such as structured ASICs, ASSPs and SoCs.

Radio architectures

We hold IP supporting a wide range of radio architectures. This includes blocks that implement ultra-low-power radio techniques enabling devices that can operate for years on a single battery.

Custom DSP Engine

For extreme DSP applications where power consumption is an issue, we have developed a highly compelling programmable hardware engine that achieves high performance with low current consumption.  The hardware core of our Arithmetic Processing Engine (APE2) can achieve signal processing efficiencies of 100MIPs per mA, whilst still being programmable.  We have implemented the APE2 engine as a software radio processor in multiple products, in both its RAM and ROM variants.

Mature Bluetooth software and toolkit

For custom single-chip Bluetooth designs, we both use and sell xIDE for Interface Express, a complete software development kit (SDK), based on our Bluetooth software stack.  This tool is supremely effective in developing powerful single-chip Bluetooth applications and is provided with a large library of qualified Bluetooth Profiles.

Software Defined Radio (SDR) Framework

For modern radio technologies that incorporate a large amount of digital signal processing, we have developed a highly extensive DSP design framework that linksalgorithm design through to implementation on hardware.  Our proprietary development system is based on common tools (including MATLAB) and a self-maintained library of algorithms and elements used in wireless systems (channel models, equalisers, demodulators, synchronisation blocks etc). 

Using our SDR Framework we have developed PHY implementations for GSM, WiMax 802.16e and 3GPP-Release99, 3G-HSPA, a MIMO test bench and elements of LTE.  All have been accomplished in exceptionally short times due to the efficiency of the framework.  Our reference designs have been validated on picoChip and TI DSP hardware platforms and have been used as industry references for validation testing against other products.

SubQore implantable radio architecture

Our proprietary radio solution represents the latest advances in ultra-low power radio for a wide range of ultra-low power applications, both within and outside the body. Whilst being extremely cost effective, the radio is also supports high integrity medical applications. The RFIC architecture is also scalable, offering an excellent trade-off between battery power and data-rate over the air.

Low-cost CTP access point reference design

Our reference design for a Cordless Telephony Access Point (CTP) demonstrates a single-chip, low cost solution for CTP, based on the BlueCore2 external device.  The same device runs both the Bluetooth stack and a CTP software application to generate dialling tones and control the hook on/off switch.

Advanced, flexible DECT implementation

Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) technology still offers a high quality indoor wireless network service for both voice and data systems.  Its low unit cost, self-configuring network and low battery power are ideal for many applications as well as cordless telephony. We have expanded our own DECT protocol stack to include “interference-avoiding” technology to optimise it for use in the 2.4GHz band, and have developed customised DECT products at different frequencies and data rates.

Digital Cellular Radio Modems (2G and 3G systems)

For medium to high data rates we have radio modem designs for connection to existing cellular networks, including GSM/GPRS or 3GPP networks, supporting international wireless access for digital products.