Wavesat rolls multi-mode baseband

The Odyssey 8500 can tackle WiMax Wave 2, 802.11bg and next-generation Personal Handyphone networks. The company will add support for Long Term Evolution cellular in its next generation.

"We believe multimode is where the market will go," said Vijay Dube, executive vice president of marketing at Wavesat (Dorval, Canada). "SK Telecom is one of our investors, and they see blanket 3G coverage with WiMax hot zones in Korea," he added.

The chip designer will supply the physical-layer software to handle the different networks on its bank of eight DSPs, using the IEEE 802.21 spec for medium independent handoff. The company licensed an audio DSP core that it has modified to handle orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

Most user programming will be handled on a 400 MHz PowerPC core embedded on the Odyssey. The chip is made in a 90nm embedded DRAM process at IBM and includes 4 Mbytes DRAM, eliminating the need for external memory.

Odyssey can run WiMax Wave 2 at speeds and power consumption as low as 100 MHz and 150 mW, said Dube. The chip is sampling now, will be in production in the fall and is being tested with carriers including Sprint and Vodaphone.