Reference design reduces time to market and risk for radio designers

An integrated open radio unit (O-RU) reference design by Analog Devices enables radio designers to reduce risk and time to market, providing the optical front haul to RF. It also allows hardware and software customisation for macro and small cell radio units. It uses technologies that drive 4G and 5G RU requirements and includes support for all sub 6GHz band and power variants, including multi-band applications, added Analog Devices. 

The ADRV904x-RD O-RU reference design has been introduced to meet the ever more stringent timeline for O-RUs in tandem with more demanding and complex operator requirements. It provides the radio unit developer with comprehensive collateral resources, said the company, freeing designers to focus on innovation and differentiation.

The ADRV904x-RD O-RU reference design platform includes ADI’s fifth generation 8T8R RadioVerse SoC with digital front end including digital pre-distortion (DPD). ADI’s commercial O-RAN 7.2a IP stack is hosted on Intel’s Agilex 7 F-series FPGA.

The platform has been tested with Radisys Layer 2/3 software running on Intel FlexRan server hardware for 8T8R (eight transmit, eight receive) macro deployment scenarios. 

The O-RU radio platform is showcased at MWC 2023 (27 February to 02 March) in Barcelona, Spain, at ADI’s booth in Hall 2- 2B18.

Analog Devices combines analogue, digital, and software technologies for products that drive digitised factories, mobility and digital healthcare, combat climate change, and connect humans and the world, said the company. 

http://www.analog.com 

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HighTec wins the race to offer Rust Compiler for Infineon Aurix microcontrollers

Believed to be the first Rust compiler available for the 32bit Aurix multi-core architecture, HighTec EDV-Systeme said it enables the use of the Rust compiler with Aurix TC3x and TC4x microcontrollers. The pairing is designed for the development of safe, secure and smart mobility and industrial applications.

The Rust compiler joins HighTec’s portfolio of LLVM open-source based C/C++ compiler tools. This new offering targets customers in the automotive and industrial sectors which can now take advantage of the security and safety benefits of both the Aurix multi-core architecture and HighTec’s LLVM-based Rust compiler.

Recently, the programming language Rust has seen significant growth in popularity, driven by the increasing need for safe and secure systems, reported HighTec. Its memory management features, such as its ownership model, help prevent the types of vulnerabilities that are often the root cause of system failures and security breaches, said the company. 

Infineon’s Aurix microcontroller family has found applications in smart mobility applications in particular, where stringent safety and security requirements are required. The announcement means the robust safety and security features of the Rust programming language are combined with the ASIL D/SIL 3 certified Aurix TC3x and TC4x microcontrollers.

HighTec is the only compiler provider to be an Infineon Preferred Design House. Its Rust compiler for Aurix TC3x and TC4x leverages the modern open source LLVM technology, with an efficient backend. The compiler is characterised by its rapid build system and advanced code optimisations, which are specifically tailored to the architecture-specific functions of the Aurix microcontrollers. HighTec is able to accelerate the development and certification of safety critical applications across a range of industries, including automotive and industrial automation. 

The original HighTec C/C++ development platform is widely used by automotive manufacturers and Tier One suppliers. By 2024, HighTec plans to offer a safety qualified Aurix Rust compiler.

HighTec’s initial Aurix Rust package includes the Rust compiler tools consisting of  cargo build system, Rust libraries, hardware abstraction, and board support package (BSP) for TC375. There are also integrated examples including the use of C based peripheral drivers and documentation.

The examples have been designed in co-operation with Elexir. For Rust HLL (high level language) debugging, developers can use the Lauterbach Trace32 debugger. 

http://www.hightec-rt.com

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Analog Devices and Marvell unveil 5G massive MIMO radio reference design

Analog Devices (ADI) and Marvell Technology have collaborated to deliver a 5G massive MIMO (mMIMO) radio reference design which will be showcased at MWC 2023. It combines digital beamforming and transceiver silicon with support for Open RAN (O-RAN). 

The collaboration combines ADI’s latest RadioVerse transceiver SoC and the Marvell Octeon 10 Fusion 5G baseband processor. The latter is claimed to be the industry’s first 5nm digital beamforming solution for 5G. The reference design has been created to improve the time to market for advanced mMIMO radio units and O-RAN support with up to 40per cent lower energy consumption, smaller size and lower weight. The Octeon 10 Fusion baseband processor also provides flexible L1 implementation, with hardware and software reuse across the radio unit and distributed unit to facilitate evolving L1 splits among operators worldwide over the coming years. The RadioVerse SoC provides extensive digital RF front end capabilities including field proven digital pre-distortion (DPD). 

“As mMIMO radio functionality grows in complexity, more specialised silicon approaches are required,” said Alex Jinsung Choi, chairman of the O-RAN Alliance. He said that reference designs such as this one can help catalyse the O-RAN market for 5G mMIMO radio units “by enabling advanced configurations that meet network operators’ high expectations for power efficiency and performance.”

Together, the RadioVerse transceiver SoC and the Octeon 10 Fusion processor support the entire signal chain with unmatched radio unit system efficiency, said Analog Devices. The ADRV9040 RadioVerse transceiver SoC includes linearisation algorithms for boosting power amplifier efficiency and performance, as well as digital channel filters which reduce interface rates. The Octeon 10 Fusion 5G baseband processor has specialised accelerators optimised for processing complex beamforming algorithms, along with dedicated processors for the low PHY baseband which can be configured for the various O-RAN split 7.2x configurations. 

“Infrastructure vendors face many challenges when developing O-RAN mMIMO radio units, including access to optimised semiconductors,” said Joe Barry, vice president of marketing, systems & technology in the communication and cloud business unit at ADI. He said the platform “makes industry-leading technology available to both established and emerging vendors”.  

Will Chu, senior vice president, processors business group at Marvell, said that the combination “provides OEMs a 5G open radio unit reference design that scales the capabilities and performance of next-generation mMIMO beamforming at the lowest possible power”.

The reference design is expandable to support a 64T64R configuration. It supports 32 transmit and receive antennas (32T32R) with 400MHz of operational bandwidth and 300MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The Octeon 10 Fusion 5G baseband processor and RadioVerse SoC leverage hardware accelerators as well as the 16nm RF and 5nm digital baseband process nodes shipping commercially, delivering up to 40 per cent reduction in energy consumption per bit compared with the previous generation. The platform enables network energy savings (NES) modes, for additional power savings. 

The platform is on display at MWC 2023 (27 February to 02 March), at ADI’s booth (Hall 2-2B18) and Marvell’s booth (Hall 2-2F34).

http://www.analog.com  

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Farnell takes a global view for ams-Osram

Optical products for automotive, consumer, industrial and healthcare products by ams-Osram are available from Farnell.

New proximity, temperature and vital sign monitoring sensors and a comprehensive range of LEDs, photodiodes and infrared (IR) emitters by ams-Osram are available from Farnell. 

The manufacturer has extended its distribution agreement with Farnell to offer optical products for sensing, visualisation and lighting applications from a single source. 

The enhanced range of solutions from ams-Osram available for fast delivery from Farnell includes the AS621X series of temperature sensors which are claimed to deliver the industry’s best combination of accuracy and low power consumption in a tiny wafer-level package. It is suitable for a range of consumer electronic devices and wearables, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and health-related monitoring systems. The series consists of three models, including AS6212, AS6214 and AS6218, providing measurement with different temperature accuracies and low power consumption, said Farnell. The compact size of each sensor ensures ease of integration and can feature up to eight different I²C addresses, which permits eight AS6221T devices to be used on one bus with no calibration or linearisation needed. 

The TMD3725 light, colour and proximity sensor offers reduced power consumption with design flexibility for dark room or full sunlight operation. Key features include advanced proximity measurement, colour sense (RGBC+IR) and digital ambient light sensing. The senor also compensates for unwanted IR energy system crosstalk reflection and undesirable ambient light photodiode current. The slim module incorporates an IR LED and factory calibrated LED driver with RGB + IR filters, high sensitivity down to mLux levels, a 1M:1 dynamic range and 0.18 micron processing technology with 1.8V I²C. The MD3725-EVM evaluation kit for the TMD3725 sensor provides everything required to evaluate the sensor.

There is also the TMD27553M ambient light / proximity photo sensor is optimised for narrow bezel mobile phones and offers industrial design flexibility, said Farnell. It has accurate ambient light sensing, superior proximity sensing and reduced power consumption. The proximity detection feature includes object recognition using photodiode detection of reflected IR energy (sourced by the integrated VCSEL). Detect and release events are interrupt driven and occur when the proximity result crosses the upper and / or lower threshold settings. The proximity engine features a wide range offset adjustment to compensate for unwanted IR energy reflection at the sensor. Moreover, the automatic ambient light subtraction with ALS (ambient light sensor) and IR photodiodes features dedicated data converters which have the capacity to produce 16-bit data. The extremely narrow 1.1mm module incorporates an IR VCSEL and factory calibrated VCSEL driver. 

The AS7056 bio-signal analogue front end (AFE) sensor is the next generation of vital sign sensors enabling users to detect bio-signals such as PPG (photoplethysmogram) and PTT (pulse transit time) as well as proximity measurements. The AS7056 is an analogue front end optimised for size and performance to support space-limited applications, such as in-ear vital sign monitoring, hearables, optical sensor platform, fitness band, smart watch, smart patches and heart rate monitors. Optical blood pressure measurements and SpO2 are enabled by the two independent working photodiode inputs of the AS7056. The AS7056 also provides two LEDs and one VCSEL driver outputs and samples up to three photodiode inputs. 

Customers can now buy the full range of ams OSRAM’s optical solutions with fast delivery from Farnell in EMEA, Newark in North America and element14 in APAC.

https://uk.farnell.com/

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