The desire to improve performance of wireless basestations has led Integrated Device Technology to develop a memory device using the serial Rapid IO standard.
The driver is the use of time domain comparison in wireless infrastructure systems to improve performance, but this creates a demand for fast memory.
"A serial buffer solution has emerged as the way to go," explained Bill Beane, senior product manager for flow control products 
at IDT.
"Earlier this year we announced a pre-processing switch," said Beane. This device moves data between up to four digital signal processors, does some packet processing and hence saves some DSP performance.
The new device sits alongside the switch, "It's a 10Gbit serial buffer that provides a pooled memory resource that 
supports operations in the DSP cluster," said Beane.
The buffer contains 18Mbit of fast SRAM memory, plus an interface to allow QDR SRAM to be added.
Compared to other methods of adding memory for time domain comparison, IDT reckons the use of the pre-processing switch and the serial memory can save 50 to 75 per cent of the extra bill of materials cost.
The memory is also suited to other DSP applications requiring a fast memory, including medical imaging, radar and other signal processing.