RF&WirelessBlog

Picochip achieves first silicon with Synopsis Lynx Design System

Picochip, using Synopsis’ Lynx Design System and Galaxy Implementation platform, has successfully achieved first silicon in the design of its next-generation 40nm PC3008 picoXcell femtocell chip. According to Synopsis, the Lynx Design System enabled Picochip’s engineering team to upgrade to a pre-tested 40nm Galaxy-based production design flow, saving time and effort compared to developing their own flow. In addition, Lynx’s Foundry-Ready System enabled Picochip’s engineers to begin design work within two weeks of initial deployment, accelerating their project start date by an estimated eight weeks.

Green Hills’ compilers and toolchain support Altair’s LTE Development

Green Hills has announced that Altair Semiconductor has used the company’s compilers, the Green Hills Probe and MULTI development tool chain, in the development of its 4G LTE products. Altair’s solution covers all variants of the LTE standard on a single chipset and software platform.

Semtech accelerates RF ASIC development with Model-Based Design

MathWorks has revealed that Semtech used Matlab and Simulink to reduce development time of optimised digital receivers in wireless RF devices. Semtech says it adopted Model-Based Design tools to create FPGA prototypes 50% faster than before, reduce verification time from weeks to days and shorten development time by 33%.

AWR and Antenna Magus partner to accelerate antenna design

High-frequency EDA company AWR and Antenna Magus have joined forces to try to accelerate the pace of antenna design for wireless products. The first result of this relationship is AWR Connected for Antenna Magus, an interface between the companies’ software products that speeds up antenna design from synthesis with Antenna Magus to full circuit/EM simulation with AWR’s Microwave Office and AXIEM software tools.

IAR collaborates with Qualcomm Atheros on industry’s first Wi-Fi SIP development system

IAR Systems is collaborating with Qualcomm Atheros on the AR4100, a highly integrated, WiFi system-in-package (SIP) for microcontroller based design. The new module is based on Qualcomm Atheros’ 802.11b/g/n single-stream Wi-Fi Align technology, enabling long range transmission while minimising energy consumption. IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM was selected as the preferred development tool for this Wi-Fi MCU.

AWR announces antenna analysis and Cadence integration

AWR has announced today that antenna analysis is now available in the 2010 release of its AXIEM 3D planar electromagnetic (EM) simulation software. Earlier this month the company also announced AWR Connected for Cadence Allegro, an interface between Cadence's Allegro products and AWR's Microwave Office design software that enables PCB and RF co-design.

Agilent and Innowireless partner on LTE test

Agilent Technologies announced at the end of last week that it has formed a strategic partnership with Innowireless to enhance the rapid development of LTE wireless test platforms, building on Agilent's experience in developing design automation tools and flexible instrumentation solutions used in the research, development and manufacturing of LTE-based components, basestation equipment and mobile devices. Innowireless is an independent Korean-based company focused on wired and wireless telecommunication testing and measurement equipment.

Ansys releases version 5.0 of RF and signal integrity tools suite - Ansoft Designer with Nexxim

Ansys has announced the release of Ansoft Designer 5.0 and Nexxim 5.0 products, the latest version of its engineering simulation platform and integrated technology, which supports what it calls 'Simulation Driven Product Development' of electronic products. New features in these latest versions that are designed to shorten the electronic design and analysis cycle include links with Ansys DesignXplorer software that enable design of experiments, sensitivity studies and six-sigma design. Additionally, a distributed-solve high-performance computing (HPC) capability has been added, which allows engineers to analyze process variations within a full signal integrity (SI) analysis across a network of computers. For RF and microwave design, Ansoft Designer 5.0 with Nexxim 5.0 feature a new system simulation engine that allows engineers to simulate entire wireless systems while linking to a library of accurate transistor and electromagnetic models.

Constant Wave publishes LTE source code online

RF signal processing software developer Constant Wave, has published source code for LTE waveform generation on its Website, which also features a full LTE solution (Spectro LTE Gen) using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

The source code is available at http://www.ConstantWave.com/lte_source_code.aspx. Releasing C++ source code to the public domain can simplify the implementation of this challenging standard, as well as allowing users of Spectro LTE Gen software to examine the core algorithms that construct LTE signals. This is a key issue for standards such as LTE which are still evolving.

CST previews new features of CST STUDIO SUITE 2010

At last week's EuMW, CST Computer Simulation Technology was previewing CST STUDIO SUITE 2010, the latest release of its integrated design environment, including an entirely new multi-physics product called CST MPHYSICS STUDIO. The flagship module CST MICROWAVE STUDIO (CST MWS) has also added an efficient algorithm that enables sensitivity analysis for several parameters in a single simulation run, and a range of new electromagnetic solver options, features and functionality.

The CST 'complete technology concept' offers different solution options within the same design environment, and now includes an asymptotic solver based on the Shooting Bouncing Ray method, an extension to physical optics.