Software-Defined Radio Platforms

 
In the coming decade, SDRs will drive all types of wireless devices, answering the exploding demand for multi-standard, high-throughput wireless communication. Such SDRs will have rigorous constraints for energy consumption, real-time processing, low-cost fabrication, and short time-to-market design. They will be implemented on multi-purpose, multi-processor System-on-Chips (MPSoCs). But the design of SDRs on MPSoCs brings about a dramatic increase in the complexity of hardware and software design.

IMEC is an independent research center, focusing on next-generation chip technology and on the enabling technologies for ambient intelligence. IMEC's research bridges the gap between fundamental research at universities and development in the industry. IMEC has its headquarters in Leuven (Belgium), and employs more than 1500 people, including 500 industrial residents and guest researchers. One of the research domains of IMEC concerns solving the technology bottlenecks for future wireless, multi-mode, multimedia devices.

A team at IMEC recently took the design complexity hurdle. They designed and demonstrated an SDR on MPSoCs, using advanced methods such as electronic system-level (ESL) design and co-emulation. The team first created a high-level virtual model of the SDR MPSoC. Then, each component of the platform was incrementally refined to the RTL level, verifying each step through co-simulation and co-emulation. State-of-the-art processor design tools were used to further model one of the critical low-power processors of the MPSoC. Also with the ESL tools, the data transfers between the processing cores were optimized to meet the tight timing constraints of baseband processing. The ESL tools helped to achieve an efficient design, especially through the architectural exploration and the early performance assessment.

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