Lime Microsystems, a fabless semiconductor company specialising in digitally configurable transceivers for the next generation of wireless broadband systems, has launched a reference design for a MicroTCA broadband wireless transceiver.

Targeted at small cell WiMAX base station applications - femtocells and picocells - the transceiver has 6 user-selectable channel bandwidths from 1.5MHz to 14 MHz and can be digitally configured to operate in bands from 2 to 4GHz.

The re-configurable design supports a variety of network configurations, bandwidths and data rates. This minimizes costs and inventory for wireless system OEMs and operators.

Using a high level command set, the design can be configured for half-duplex and full-duplex operation in both frequency division multiplex (FDM) and time division multiplex (TDM) modes. The board can also be used as a 'plug-and-play' transceiver for rapid evaluation and deployment of WiMAX base stations based upon ACTA or MicroTCA standards.

The zero-IF transceiver uses 12-bit baseband ADCs and DACs. A 40MHz sampling rate is derived from a low-noise clock. Its serial RapidIO interface supports a throughput of up to 3.125Gbps and can communicate via any advanced mezzanine cards (AMC) ports.

A single port carries both I/Q and control traffic and an I/Q record and playback capability simplifies testing. A full speed USB interface is provided for PC controlled standalone operation.

The development platform will be available from December 1, 2007 at a one-off price of $12,000.

Lime has been working closely with a number of leading companies in both baseband and RF amplifier technologies. Formal partnership announcements will follow in the next few months, and these agreements will enable Lime to support its customers in the development of complete base stations in which interoperability between the main circuit functions is guaranteed.

The company's first semiconductors will be launched in Q1, 2008. See www.limemicro.com