Qualcomm may reign supreme in handsets system-on-chip offerings, but its lesser rivals are increasingly challenged by the tendency for major OEMs, like Apple, Samsung and Huawei, to design at least some key components, notably app processors, inhouse. The same trend is being seen to some extent in the base station space too, and in that context, while providers of all-in-one chip solutions get squeezed, IP licensors become more powerful. This is seen in a new deal between Ceva – which aims to be to DSP (digital signal processor) cores what ARM is to mobile processor IP ‘ and ZTE.
The Chinese vendor has licensed the Ceva-XC DSP core for multimode TDD/FDD LTE SoCs for base stations. This is a breakthrough for Ceva, whose considerable licensing success has been mainly in devices; and also reflects the desire of OEMs like ZTE to develop their own ASICs to differentiate their offerings, increase their supply chain control and reduce their costs, rather than buying complete ASSPs (application specific standard products) from third parties ‘ most notably, in base stations, Texas Instruments and Freescale.
Eran Briman, Ceva’s VP of marketing, told EETimes: “OEMs — whether in the consumer electronics or infrastructure market — increasingly want to be in the driver’s seat by licensing a DSP core and designing their own SoCs’, or at least to license cores in order to help specify the ASIC for a partner to develop. This gives them the flexibility to react quickly to new requirements such as emerging radio technologies or new backhaul techniques.
ZTE has its own chip division with ASIC design capabilities, and is looking to bolster this to keep up with Huawei’s HiSilicon operation. Its Ceva-based solution is likely to be a multicore platform based on a cluster of DSPs, with an ARM core to handle upper layer tasks.
Like ARM on the processor side, Ceva is pushing from devices into base stations and other types of wireless infrastructure, and says it has an unnamed but ‘influential’ player from this sector which has adapted the Ceva-XC core for next generation, multimode LTE base station SoCs. As well as ZTE, Mindspeed is already a publicly announced partner from this market.
Ceva has been vocal over the past couple of years in its goal of enabling licensees of its DSP cores to challenge incumbents like TI, by supporting as many wireless communications standards as possible. It set out that stall in early 2012 with the launch of its ‘universal advanced communications engine’, as it described its Ceva-XC4000 family of programmable cores. These are designed to help chip developers support new standards quickly, while preserving their investments in previous generation products for the cellular and broadcast sectors.