Mobile World Congress to See First Real Network Infrastructure Demonstration of Cat-4 150Mbps LTE Downlink Throughput
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, February 27th, 2012 — Renesas Mobile Corporation, a leading supplier of advanced cellular semiconductor solutions and platforms, will demonstrate how it can extend the performance of its world-leading SP2531 LTE triple mode modem to achieve nearly 150Mbps in the downlink to deliver LTE Cat-4 capability thanks to its ‘smarter by design’ architecture. This demonstration, which is being held in partnership with leading telecoms infrastructure provider, Ericsson, will take place at the Mobile World Congress 2012, Feb 27-March 1, at Fira Montjuic in Barcelona, Spain and represents the first of its kind using real network infrastructure equipment.
The evolution of cellular standards never ceases and there is still more performance to be extracted from all the 3GPP standards, from EDGE to HSPA, HSPA+, LTE and LTE-A. Renesas Mobile has one of the most experienced modem teams in the world today and stands at the forefront of modem engineering with particular strengths in receiver design. The demonstration highlights how, by implementing software changes in its smart modem architecture, Renesas Mobile can significantly extend its performance. The same philosophy permeates the Renesas Mobile approach to platforms which benefit from a high degree of configurability, scalability and optimisation.
“Above all, device manufacturers want to ensure that the modem technology they select is reliable, has excellent performance and is fully interoperable with different networks and equipment,” commented Heikki Tenhunen, senior vice president of Renesas Mobile Corporation. “Through the application of smart design processes acquired through many thousands of man-years of experience we have been able to squeeze the maximum efficiency out of our modem while most Cat-3 chipsets on the market just achieve minimum throughput requirements. The high performance coupled with validation on network infrastructure means that our customers have the best possible base for future generations of LTE devices.”
“Driving peak rate performance is an example of successful collaboration between Ericsson and Renesas Mobile. Category 4 enables higher end-user experience and up to 150 Mbps to the large number of LTE smartphones coming to the market,” added Thomas Noren, head of LTE at Ericsson.
System on Chip modems are optimized to deliver the best performance and efficiency based on the throughput required, with elements such as the memory and programmable hardware in the SP2531 clocked to deliver Cat-3. Renesas Mobile's smart design allows the streamlining of its performance to the point where the Cat-3 chip can deliver Cat-4 downlink throughput. As a result of the significant performance advantage presented by Renesas Mobile modems, devices based on these chipsets will enable users to achieve the highest speed transfers for activities such as browsing and file download while mobile operators will benefit from increased capacity in addition to the ability to offer exciting new applications to their subscribers.
Ericsson and the (ex- Nokia) Renesas Mobile modem team have a relationship that stretches back well over a decade. During this time the companies have collaborated to extend the possibilities of advanced technologies by undertaking joint interoperability development testing (IODT) sessions. These sessions are critical to the progression of new technologies as they enable the testing and validation of new features before they are rolled out commercially and hit the primetime. For example, as a result of the collaboration, Renesas Mobile and Ericsson were among the first in the industry to verify some US bands including AWS band 4 and 700 MHz band 17.
Renesas Mobile's recently launched Cat-4 high volume smartphone platform, the MP5232, enables full Cat-4 performance.
About Renesas Mobile Corporation
Renesas Mobile Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation and offers advanced and innovative products and services for mobile phones, car infotainment solutions, consumer electronics and industrial applications. Renesas Mobile's mission is to develop, productize and deliver communications centric semiconductor chipsets and complete hardware and software platforms built on these chipsets to meet the needs of our customers in these markets. Renesas Mobile Corporation provides complete cellular chipset platform solutions include powerful applications processors, leadership and industry reference cellular modems, highly integrated radio frequency devices, intelligent power management solutions, and the complete system and software expertise to develop flagship devices more rapidly.
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