Morpho Technologies demonstrates 3G software defined radiorunning in silicon

Irvine, CA., March 31, 2003 - Morpho Technologies successfully demonstrates a complete software 3G baseband processor running on the MS1-64 reconfigurable Digital Signal Processor (rDSP) at the GSPx & International Signal Processing Conference, March 31 through April 3rd. Morpho Technologies’ MS1 rDSP implements the baseband functions of a WCDMA Transceiver for handsets and infrastructure equipment while simultaneously running applications such as MPEG4, GPS, 802.11, as well as others. The MS1 rDSP executes these applications by running programs residing in flash memory outside the chip.

The MS1 core meets the needs of both current and emerging wireless demands for both handsets and base stations allowing customers to rapidly develop and launch new products featuring the latest algorithms supporting a wide array of standards and remotely deploy upgrades as standards evolve and new software technologies become available.

Two versions of the MS1 architecture, the MS1-64 and MS1-16, running in hardware development systems are currently available from Morpho Technologies. These devices represent the most advanced Software Defined Radio (SDR) and multimedia solutions available to the communications community.

The MS1-16 and MS1-64 DSPs are multiple element processing arrays designed to provide processing capacity required by multimode wireless terminal designs that implement multiple wireless standards together with multiple data processing applications. Examples include WCDMA/CDMA, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 802.11, GPS, image processing for both still and motion pictures including MPEG and JPEG, voice processors, and audio processing including MP3.

The programmability of the MS1 architecture supports the rapid implementation of wireless standards including 3GPP and 3GPP2 releases. As these standards evolve, off-chip software modifications eliminate the need for new ASIC devices, resulting in a significant reduction in design time as well as a risk reduction in making baseband processor chips. With the new technologies from Morpho Technologies, portable device and infrastructure manufacturers can build products and know they can easily be upgraded and modified, even if they have to sit in inventory for a while.

"The MS1-16 and MS1-64 reconfigurable DSP cores enable our customers to develop products with less cost and less risk compared to traditional ASIC development techniques,” comments Todd Nash, Vice President, Business Development, Morpho Technologies. "The processing capacity, power efficiency, and flexibility of the MS1 architecture enable manufacturers to rapidly move from prototype to product introduction."