BOPS Introduces Multi-Mode WLAN Chipset Architecture

BOPS, Inc. yesterday introduced an evaluation chip for its Mobile Wireless Processor (MWP) to be used in PHY (physical layer of OSI model) processing in 802.11a, 802.11b, and HiperLAN/2 solutions. BOPS licenses and integrates scalable broadband digital signal processing (DSP) cores used in WLAN chip architectures.

The MWP was created in TSMC’s (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.) 0.13 micron 1.2v process and consumes only 300mW of power. It uses the BOPS WirelessRay core, which the company claims is the first DSP core to compete with single-mode WLAN fixed-function designs.

Industry analysts Micrologic Research indicated that it estimates that 25 million WLAN nodes will ship worldwide in 2005. With potential incompatibilities between IEEE standards, programmable WLAN chips could prove to be extremely valuable.

The BOPS Wireless Ray core is a specific implementation of BOPS ManArray multi-parallel architecture optimized for WLAN applications. Its ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) supports complex data types, acceleration of complex FFT/IFFT (Fast Fourier Transform), flexible support for bit insertion/extraction, and smooth flow of byte wide data types.

The company also said the BOPS Halo compiler, included in the SDK and bundled with the WirelessRay product, is designed to enable rapid time-to-market of multi-mode PHY software.

BOPS stated that the MWP was designed using industry-standard, low-power synthesis tools from Synopsys with custom-designed memories and register files. The chip also incorporates 110kB on-chip RAM, PCI I/F, SDRAM I/F, and SysAD bus, delivering 6000 MIPS of performance while consuming 300mW of power.

The evaluation chip is available for licensing today and will be incorporated into BOPS Wireless LAN development platform, expected to be available in Q1 2002. The company also stated that customers who want more control over the implementation can take delivery of the WirelessRay core in Register Transfer Language (RTL) format.

WirelessRay and MWP product briefs are available at the company’s Web site.

Matthew Peretz is Managing Editor of 802.11-Planet.com

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