Altair Semiconductor Successfully Integrates TurboConcept turbo-code IP Cores into its LTE Baseband Processor Product Line

July 2, 2009 -- Altair Semiconductor, a fabless chip company developing the world's most advanced 4G mobile semiconductors for handheld devices, today announced that it has successfully integrated the TurboConcept LTE/WiMAX solutions in its LTE FourGee(TM) product line.

Altair’s FourGee-3100 LTE baseband processor integrates TurboConcepts’ dual-mode turbo decoder core. Altair has now successfully integrated two successive turbo code IP core generations from TurboConcept, including the WiMAX-only Core in 2007 and the LTE/WiMAX dual-mode Core today.

“By leveraging our existing, successful technology, and proven partners such as TurboConcept, we are able to bring our LTE products to market more quickly,” said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development for Altair. “The Altair FourGee™-2150 for mobile WiMAX, which includes a TurboConcept core, is recognized as a market leader in high performance and power efficiency, and our LTE chipsets integrating a similar core from TurboConcept offer the same advantages.”

“We are proud being able to address Atair’s aggressive technical positioning in silicon specifications. We are convinced that our solutions combined within Altair’s unique lowpower architecture, will turn rapidly into success in the LTE market.” said Jacky Tousch, cofounder & CTO, TurboConcept.

The TurboConcept 4G dual-mode turbo decoder Core TC1700 implements both WiMAX (IEEE802.16d/e) and 3GPP-LTE (3GPP Release 8) convolutional turbo code specifications. It is an ideal solution for Base station or CPE receivers implementing both physical layers. The Core uses a unique architecture that reduces by 40 % the silicon area, when compared to two single-mode Cores, with no restrictions on the flexibility and features set.

Two throughput profiles are available, that cover respectively 100 or 200 Mbits/s decoded bitrate. The Core includes the sub-block de-interleaving and CRC decoding functions, and allows switching between LTE and WiMAX mode dynamically, for each FEC block.

About TurboConcept

TurboConcept is a leading provider of Intellectual Property Cores for advanced FEC (Forward Error Correction) techniques – Turbo and LDPC codes. TurboConcept has a large portfolio of Cores covering Convolutional Turbo Codes, Turbo Product Codes and LDPC codes, addressing open specifications (e.g. 3GPP-LTE, DVB-S2, DVB-T2, WiMAX, HomePlug, CCSDS, DVB-RCS) or optimized proprietary schemes. The Cores are delivered as RTL source code (Verilog or VHDL languages) for ASIC implementation, or as synthesized netlists for FPGA devices.
TurboConcept is part of the Newtec Group of Companies, www.newtec.eu.
For more information, visit www.turboconcept.com.

About Altair Semiconductor

Altair is the world's leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G semiconductors that take broadband bandwidth beyond notebooks and USB adaptors to un-tethered, battery-operated handheld devices. The company's products provide handheld device manufacturers integrating 4G technologies into their products with a highly power-optimized, robust and cost-effective solution. Altair is privately held and has raised a total of $48M in three rounds of financing from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, BRM Capital, ETV Capital, Giza Venture Capital, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Pacific Technology Fund.
For more information, visit www.altair-semi.com.