Q5 interview - Mike Farese, BitWave Semiconductor

Mike Farese, president and CEO of BitWave Semiconductor, the software radio company, talks to Electronics Weekly about the impact of software radio on mobile phone design, the biggest challenge for wireless device manufacturers, and whether software radio can ultimately replace hardware radio transceiver designs...

Can you describe your technology in two sentences?

BitWave's Softransceiver RFIC is the industry's first low-cost, highly programmable transceiver realised in bulk digital CMOS. The Softransceiver overcomes the limitations of both fixed function solutions as well as traditional SDR approaches by allowing a single transceiver chain to be software programmed to work at any frequency, any bandwidth, any protocol at any performance level, without sacrificing cost, performance or power consumption.

What impact will software radio have on the design of mobile phones in the future?

The potential benefits of software defined radios (SDRs) are well known. Having a standard hardware platform that is software upgradeable to meet new wireless protocols completely removes the need for the time consuming and expensive development of fixed function radios.

With a programmable standard hardware platform, wireless handset ODMs and OEMs can replace the many radio chips and chipsets currently used across their product families with one single programmable chipset solution, thereby reducing costs and speeding time to market. Software programmable transceivers will also enable phone designs the ability to provide additional services. Service offerings can be optimized to the customer and not limited by the choice of fixed handset hardware.

Up until now, the problem has been that traditional SDR architecture has been too large, too costly and too power hungry for mobile phones. A low-cost programmable transceiver can significantly accelerate the phone design process and bring a wider range of functionality to all phones that integrate the technology.

Can software radio ultimately replace hardware radio transceiver designs?

I see software programmable solutions becoming the standard in the mobile phone industry. However, that is not meant to diminish the role of hardware in meeting radio performance benchmarks. The hardware selected or designed for future radios must offer a high degree of flexibility and must also strike the right balance between hardware performance and software programmability.

Careful choices which balance the power efficiency of hardware based solutions with the flexibility inherent in a software programmable radio will be the basis for an effective solution. Key in this discussion is not only the idea of flexibility, but providing it at the right size, power, and cost. Flexibility is the key benefit of software programmable radios, but without meeting the performance benchmarks of the consumer electronics industry the technology will not be guaranteed success.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge for wireless device manufacturers in the next five years?

The biggest challenge is to continue to provide for the diversity of wireless protocols and frequency bands that exist or are being developed. More specifically, the challenge is providing seamless connectivity for mobile phones across wireless bands and protocols embracing low cost programmable solutions. Carriers will look to deploy new services to drive up ARPU and the tools they will have include new bands, new protocols and new mobile phones which operate on those networks. Two keys to meeting this challenge will be enabling quick time to market with a cost competitive solution.

You've been in the handset and semiconductor business for a good few years now, what made you decide to get involved with a software radio company?

BitWave has something truly unique, and the technology brings much needed capability to the industry. The Softransceiver will greatly help the OEMs and ODMs, and in the long run, that will benefit consumers with wireless handsets that demonstrate improved functionality, improved performance and reduced cost. As I said, this market will be defined by end user and carrier demands. BitWave's technology is an essential component to meet those demands now and in the future.
 
See also: Q5 - Interviews with electronics industry leaders
Read all the Electronics Weekly Q5 interviews. From ARM's chairman, Sir Robin Saxby, to touchscreen technology firm Zytronic's MD, Mark Cambridge, the business leaders share their particular insights on the UK electronics industry.

See also: Electronics Weekly's Focus on Wireless, a roundup of content related to wireless communications.