May 7, 2012 -- Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. today announced the first product for enterprise and public access time-division synchronous-code-division-multiple-access (TD-SCDMA) small cells. Combining yhe Mindspeed Comcerto C1000 CPE processor and PC205 baseband with the PC8818 software, the new 16-user reference design will provide small cell coverage to the world’s largest mobile market.

Mindspeed is currently the only system-on-chip (SOC) company to offer TD-SCDMA small cell solutions and now has a total of seven customers in China.

Following Mindspeed's acquisition of Picochip, the new reference design demonstrates the synergies of the two companies' products. It combines the best of each company's silicon expertise, with the PC205 baseband processor and the C1000 CPE processor working together on the PC8818 software stack for 16-user systems.

"Picochip has a strong history in the Chinese market and it's great to see this continue after the acquisition by Mindspeed," said Yang Hua, secretary-general, TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA). "China Mobile is the biggest operator in the world with almost one billion subscribers. Small cells are the only way to provide coverage and capacity to this many people, particularly in dense urban areas and this makes the new reference design from Mindspeed very important to the Chinese market."

Building on Mindspeed's existing solution, the PC8808 four-user TD-SCDMA system for residential applications, using Mindspeed's PC202 single chip, the new reference design has been tailored to allow customers to easily migrate.

The new PC8818 software stack is fully compatible with China Mobile's TD-SCDMA enterprise femtocell specification, following Mindspeed's role as one of the key contributors of that specification. The higher-performing PC205 is also pin-to-pin compatible with the PC202, enabling OEMs to reuse their residential femtocell hardware design. Finally, while the PC8818 improves some key algorithms in the receiver to support 16 simultaneous users, it still maintains the same API to the high-layer protocol stack allowing users to integrate their existing femtocell software stack. Combined, these measures significantly reduce risk for customers, accelerating time-to-market.