US : While others trumpet the benefits of LTE and future plans to meet data rates, Freescale Semiconductor is demonstrating working LTE technology today in both its handset and network platforms. This technology will be on display at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 11-14, 2008.

Cellular Handset: LTE (Long Term Evolution) is engineered to provide high-speed, low-latency data that can unlock the power of high bandwidth applications in a mobile environment. According to most analysts LTE-enabled consumer devices are at least one year away, yet Freescale is already achieving peak data rates of 96 Mbps downlink and 86 Mbps uplink for mobile devices and plans to go higher as the standard matures. Freescale’s demo at Mobile World Congress will feature streaming high-definition video uplink and downlink.

“Our ability to demonstrate streaming HD video at such high data rates illustrates both the growing maturity of the LTE specification and our unique implementation,” said Tom Deitrich, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Cellular Products Group. “We are committed to working with and supporting key partners to rapidly commercialize LTE for operators.”

With a new device architecture created specifically to capitalize on LTE, Freescale technology enables very high data rates at very low clock speeds and low power consumption. This is provided through Freescale’s custom processors utilizing a micro-coded engine for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to handle the enormous instructions-per-second load required to process high-speed data.

“Freescale provides the five key ingredients – baseband, A-to-D and D-to-A wideband converters, integrated front-end converters, software expertise and power amplifier efficiency in RF – for LTE success in consumer-enabled devices,” said John Jackson, vice president of Yankee Group’s Enabling Technologies Group. “Their expertise in cellular and networking gives them a clear advantage in the development and leadership of LTE.”

Cellular Networks: LTE will increase the spectral efficiency beyond the existing 3G networks, allowing carriers to serve more standard voice customers and to provide more data — and more revenue-generating services — in a given bandwidth. As a major supplier of RF and processors for 3G infrastructure, Freescale is providing the LTE technology that will pave the way for carriers to adopt this standard.

“Through our leadership in RF power amplifiers, programmable DSPs and PowerQUICC® communications processors, Freescale is well positioned to help our customers evolve to next-generation wireless technologies, such as front-runner LTE,” said Lynelle McKay, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale’s Networking and Multimedia Group. “We offer platform development solutions today that speed and simplify creation of networking equipment for LTE and other emerging broadband wireless technologies.”

Freescale's LTE infrastructure technologies deliver closely coupled Layer 1 and Layer 2 LTE radio processing. The solutions on display at Mobile World Congress combine programmable data plane software with Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AdvancedMC™) featuring the MPC8548 PowerQUICC® III processor and the quad-core MSC8144 StarCore® DSP. C-based data plane software seamlessly integrates the processors, enabling the advanced features and scheduling algorithms essential to delivering low latency, high throughput LTE systems.