Ittiam expects to sign customers for its WLAN

Ittiam expects to sign customers for its WLAN
By K.C. Krishnadas, EE Times
March 6, 2003 (2:18 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030306S0033

BANGALORE, India — Ittiam Systems, a start-up based here offering DSP services and products, said it expects to sign up licensees for its IEEE 802.11b-based wireless LAN.

Ittiam also said it is in talks with about 10 potential customers and hopes to sign at least a few of them by the end of the month.

Ittiam's WLAN includes a complete system model, a baseband core, media access controller (MAC) software and a complete reference board on which the system's IP is demonstrated in real-time.

"There are multiple semiconductor companies in the world who sell WLAN chipsets. However, around the world there are only a handful of vendors who offer WLAN as an IP. Out of them, only a few have a working IP solution demonstrated on a reference design and Ittiam is part of this select group," said Shantanu Jha, Ittiam's vice president for communications.

Bangalore's first wireless Internet cafe is based on the Ittiam WLAN.

Ittiam said its WLA N is designed to work with commercial off-the-shelf RF solutions. The baseband is available as a synthesizable core as HDL in both Verilog and VHDL, a benchmark gate count, competitive bit error rate performance and includes advanced signal processing algorithms for synchronization, channel estimation and equalization.

The MAC is designed for 802.11 b/a/g and operates both in access point and station card mode. MAC implementation is split between hardware and software, with more of the latter. This, Ittiam said, is aimed at ensuring low MIPS and easier portability.

The reference board is a WLAN demonstration platform. The baseband is implemented on a FPGA. The MAC runs on a Samsung ARM processor and has dual RF to support both 802.11b and 802.11a. The same board runs as a station card or as an access point, and Ittiam claimed the throughput of its IP solution was as good as WLANs now on the market.

The company said it has demonstrated the complete network working in an heterogenous environment, i ncluding applications such as transferring files and streaming video over wireless. Demos included an Ittiam 802.11b WLAN on one end and a off-the-shelf WLAN card on the other. Ittiam has demonstrated the network in the United States Japan and Taiwan.

Prospective customers include semiconductor makers seeking a jump-start into the 802.11b chipset market, system-on-chip companies seeking to embed WLAN capability into their processors and system companies looking for an IP solution to be integrated into their systems.

"We see significant growth in WLAN for years to come and for applications ranging from enterprises to entertainment," said Ittiam chairman and chief executive Srini Rajam. "Therefore, our roadmap includes not only 802.11b-based IP but extends into 802.11a and 802.11g."

Ittiam said it has already launched speech, wireline and audio products and has signed up licensees. The company also has a U.S. subsidiary.