Blue Wonder Communications to Develop LTE Baseband IP Using Multiple Optimized Tensilica Dataplane Processors

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - July 13, 2009 - Tensilica, Inc. today announced that Blue Wonder Communications, of Dresden, Germany, has licensed Tensilica's Xtensa dataplane processors (DPUs) for an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) embedded broadband modem design. Blue Wonder Communications is an independent design house developing mobile broadband solutions for the telecommunications and semiconductor industries. Many of the employees at Blue Wonder Communications previously were employed by NXP's wireless division and have extensive expertise in high-data-rate wireless design.

"New design approaches are needed to successfully implement the LTE and LTE Advanced standards," stated Dr. Peter Meyer, managing director and head of development at Blue Wonder Communications. "The traditional approach of using hardwired logic for the performance-intensive PHY layer datapath simply won't work. Because LTE systems run at such high data rates, it would require millions of gates of logic developed with RTL (register transfer level) methods - and that creates a huge verification hurdle. Using Tensilica's automated processor creation tools we are able to quickly generate customized DPUs delivering the performance levels of custom hardware with the programmability of a processor."

"Blue Wonder Communications, with its expertise in high-speed, low power mobile broadband modems, is slated to become a major player in LTE modem semiconductor IP licensing," stated Mahesh Venkatraman, Tensilica's vice president of marketing, vertical segments. "Blue Wonder Communication's design team fully realizes the benefits of customizing Tensilica's DPUs to meet the requirements of LTE and LTE Advanced handset designs, with requirements for 20-to-150-times the efficiency on a much lower power budget than current 3G designs."

Tensilica Solutions for Baseband DSP Applications

Tensilica offers a variety of solutions for baseband communications applications.  For designs with a software-centric architecture, Tensilica offers several optimized DSP (digital signal processors) architectures under the ConnX DSP family label, including the recently announced ConnX Baseband Engine. For designs with a more hardware-centric approach, Tensilica's customizable dataplane processors are the ideal building block for creating high-performance highly-optimized functional blocks with the performance equivalent to hardwired logic pared with the flexibility of programmable processors.

About Tensilica Dataplane Processors

Tensilica's DPU technology allows companies like Blue Wonder Communications to combine the best of CPUs (central processing units) and DSPs with custom functions that previously may have been implemented in RTL hardware. This unique combination provides 10-to-100-times the performance of standard CPUs and DSPs.

About Blue Wonder Communications

Blue Wonder Communications is an independent design house for mobile broadband solutions serving the telecommunications and semiconductor industries. The company will focus on licensing its embedded modem technology that supports the next generation mobile standard LTE (Long Term Evolution). This technology is designed for easy integration by semiconductors companies in cellular ICs for use in mobile phones and wireless PC adapters. It enables the use of data services, particularly mobile Internet, that need fast data transmission.

Blue Wonder's core competencies include mobile broadband modem design, OFDM based system development, and low power semiconductors design. The company was founded in December 2008 and is located in Dresden, Germany.

For more information, see www.bluwo.com.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. - the leader in customizable dataplane processors - is a semiconductor IP licensor recognized by the Gartner Group as the fastest growing semiconductor IP supplier in 2008.  Dataplane Processor Units (DPUs) combine the best capabilities of CPUs and DSPs while delivering 10-to-100-times the performance because they can be customized using Tensilica's automated design tools to meet specific dataplane performance targets. Tensilica's DPUs  power SOC designs at system OEMs and five out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for products including mobile phones, consumer electronics devices (including digital TV, Blu-ray Disc players, broadband set top boxes and portable media players), computers, and storage, networking and communications equipment. For more information on Tensilica's patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.