CommAgility announces high-performance signal processing module for wireless baseband applications

AdvancedMC board based on Texas Instruments multicore TCI6487 DSP simplifies development, speeds time-to-market

Dallas - TI Developer Conference, February 25, 2008 - CommAgility announced today its new AMC-6487C, an Advanced Mezzanine Card offering unprecedented signal processing performance and bandwidth in a highly compact package. The first single width, full-height AdvancedMC card to be based on Texas Instruments Incorporated’s (TI) multicore TMS320TCI6487 digital signal processor (DSP), it is designed to give OEMs the performance and I/O connectivity required for wireless baseband and other processing-intensive applications such as WiMAX and Long Term Evolution of 3GPP (LTE).

The AMC-6487C includes three software programmable TCI6487 DSPs, each containing three highperformance C64x+ cores running at 1 GHz as well as 3 Mbytes of on-chip memory. The multicore DSP provides significantly more effective performance than TI’s single core TMS320C6455 device, and also affords a myriad of high-speed peripherals including Gigabit Ethernet, DDR2, antenna interface links (OBSAI/CPRI) and two Serial RapidIO (SRIO) interfaces. The AMC-6487C board also includes a complementary, customer-programmable, Xilinx Virtex-4 FX100 FPGA for additional parallel processing. The combination of DSPs and FPGA on the board allows an application to be balanced and optimized for the most effective use of system resources.

The AMC-6487C includes a front panel interface to three full rate CPRI or OBSAI antenna links plus a configurable clock/sync interface supporting OBSAI RP1, thus providing industry-standard links to wireless remote radio heads. It incorporates a Tundra Tsi578 SRIO switch for a full low-latency, high-bandwidth SRIO infrastructure between processing elements and multiple 10Gbps external connections, two to the AMC backplane and one to the front panel. A Broadcom BCM5389 supports multiple Gigabit Ethernet links on and off-card.

“With CommAgility's AMC-6487C board and support offering, a broader range of developers now have access to the immense performance advantages of TI’s multicore DSP technology," said Thomas Brooks, senior DSP platform marketing manager, TI. "The board provides an optimized OEM solution for wireless broadband infrastructure solutions, and can be leveraged by developers innovating the most processingintensive emerging applications.”

Tracy Richardson, VP of Marketing at Tundra Semiconductor, said, “The CommAgility AMC-6487C is an optimal solution for our wireless baseband customers. By leveraging Tundra’s Tsi578’s true non blocking full duplex 80 Gbps for bandwidth and superior signal integrity, system designers get the full performance of RapidIO from the front panel, to the TCI6487 DSPs and also to the AMC.4 compliant backplane allowing them to quickly develop systems for field trials and full scale production. We are glad to enable CommAgility with our RapidIO Switch in this system.”

“The AMC-6487C provides a real solution ready for OEM deployment, thus reducing integration risk and speeding time to market," said Edward Young, managing director, CommAgility. "It allows a much wider range of customers to take advantage of TI’s multicore DSP technology to improve their system performance and cost."

The module can provide the baseband processing required for a 3-sector WiMAX base station, which can connect up to 100 small businesses or over 500 households to the Internet. The board’s MIMO 2 x transmit and 2 x receiver support improves the link bandwidth and Quality of Service.

The AMC-6487C will ship in late Q1 2008. Pricing details are available on request.

About CommAgility:
CommAgility, based in Loughborough, UK, provides standards-based embedded products for high end signal processing applications, focusing on the latest standards such as AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA. The founders are all veterans from Loughborough Sound Images/Blue Wave Systems/Motorola with vast experience in this field.

Website: www.commagility.com
Contact:
Tel: +44 1509 228866

About the Texas Instruments Developer Network:
CommAgility is a member of the TI Developer Network, a community of respected, well-established companies offering products and services based on TI analog and digital technology. The Network provides a broad range of end-equipment solutions, embedded software, engineering services and development tools that help customers accelerate innovation to make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun.

About Tundra Semiconductor:
Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (TSX:TUN) supplies the world's leading communications, computing and storage companies with smart System Interconnect products, intellectual property (IP) and design services backed by world-class customer service and technical support. Tundra's track record of product leadership includes over a decade of bridges and switches enabling key industry standards: RapidIO®, PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express®, Power Architecture™, VME, HyperTransport™, Interlaken, and SPI4.2. Tundra's products deliver high functional quality and simplified board design and layout, with specific focus on system level signal integrity. Tundra's design services division, Silicon Logic Engineering, Inc., offers industry-leading ASIC and FPGA design services, semiconductor intellectual property and product development consulting. Tundra's smart technology connects critical components in high performance embedded systems around the world. For more information, please visit www.tundra.com.

Press contact:
Nick Daines
Email: nick@nickdaines.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)115 8412109
Mobile: +44 (0)7958 534731

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