PicoChip, Intel partner on WiMax ref design

Intel Corp.'s IXP2350 network processor will be teamed with the PHY chip for WiMax from PicoChip Designs Ltd in the Vida reference design from Tyco Electronics Inc.'s M/A-COM subsidiary.

M/A-COM is demonstrating the 4.9GHz design to state and local governments for possible use in public safety networks.

PicoChip uses Wintegra processors in its own reference designs, though it has helped customers develop WiMax solutions based on Intel and Freescale processors.

The initiative for the collaboration came from M/A-COM, which sought to implement Intel's efforts to move to high-integration WiMax media access control processors with picoChip's PHY in its first-generation Vida system.

Rupert Baines, PicoChip's vice president of marketing, said the scale of government and public-safety networks could dwarf even large carrier-based WiMax rollouts. In June, M/A-COM agreed to supply $2 billion worth of P25 radio networks to New York State, and future government use of WiMax could approach that scale, Baines said.

- Loring Wirbel
EE Times