AMCC's New Technology Improves Power Efficiency of Basestations

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC (News - Alert)), a company providing embedded Power Architecture processing, optical transport and storage solutions, has announced an advanced technology that shows path to more power-efficient base stations.

 

AMCC’s new technology, the Arches reference design kit, consists of two Power Architecture processors performing at 1 GHz and producing 4,000 dynamic microscopic image processing scanner (DMIPS) integrated into a standard Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC).

 

The design supports RapidFET, a network management and diagnostic tool with a powerful graphical user interface (GUI) for RapidIO (News - Alert)-based systems, and includes LINX, an open-source solution for distributed system Inter-Process Communication that is platform/interconnect independent, the company said.

 

On-chip integration for the two PowerPC 460 GT processors reportedly offers high-speed interfaces for industry-standard solutions based on Serial RapidIO, Gigabit Ethernet, and PCI Express interconnects.

 

The design kit, according to AMCC, consumes less than 6W per processor, so it reduces heat dissipation in systems, thereby reducing the need for large heat sinks and elaborate cooling resources. In effect, the solution saves operators from unnecessary spending on cooling systems. 

 

“A major development trend today is the so-called green basestation but to capture the interest of mobile network operators, technology providers have to show a reduction in the total cost of ownership for these systems,” said Dab Bouvier, AMCC's CTO, in a statement.

 

According to Bouvier, the Arches reference design kit is a highly efficient platform with abundant processing density. It provides base station developers with plenty of performance without creating heat issues inside the system and reduces the need to build new facilities to house next-generation equipment.

 

The design of Arches reference design kit conforms to the SCOPE Alliance (News - Alert) profile for connectivity, enabling communications via Gigabit Ethernet or Serial Rapid IO with other modules using a carrier board, the company said. With Arches performing MAC layer processing, designers can quickly prototype a radio subsystem using a DSP board for the physical layer.

 

AMCC provides energy efficient sustainable solutions to process, transport, and store information for the next generation of Internet data center and carrier central office. The company is known for its high-speed signal processing, IP and Ethernet packet processing, and storage controllers and processors.