Redpine’s 802.11n RS9110 and SiTel’s advanced baseband IC SC14450 combine into VoWiFi platform

Redpine Signals, Inc., a developer of ultra low power multi-standard OFDM and MIMO silicon-based solutions and SiTel Semiconductor, a supplier of semiconductor products for Digital Cordless Telephony integrated Redpine’s ultra-low power Lite-Fi™ 802.11n SoC and SiTel’s advanced baseband IC SC14450 into a flexible and complete VoWiFi phone reference design. RS9110, the Lite-Fi™ product that is the core of the world’s first 802.11n Draft 2.0 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED® SDIO card solution, integrated with the low power SC14450, enables a new generation of Wi-Fi based VoIP phones that would make available the advantages of 802.11n connectivity at a cost similar to or less than those using conventional 802.11b/g connectivity.

The RS9110, with breakthrough power consumption numbers, is designed for mobile and handheld consumer devices with targeted Wi-Fi certified functionality for power-saving voice/video traffic (WMM-Power Save™) and to establish connectivity (Wi-Fi Protected Setup™, WPS). The RS9110 incorporates a variety of features that ease the integration of WLAN into VoIP platforms including clock and power management. The chip integrates a proprietary ultra-low power multi-threaded processor that provides for a high degree of layer-2 protocol handling within the chip, and also provides for the power-efficient offload of some critical layer-3 functionality. 

“Redpine’s Lite-Fi product family offers differentiating performance and power advantages achieved through six years of research and backed by over 100 patents in all relevant areas of architecture, signal processing, algorithms and low-power implementation,” says Mr. Venkat Mattela, Chief Executive Officer of Redpine Signals Inc. “With the WLAN spectrum becoming increasingly crowded, Wi-Fi based on 802.11n will enable capacity to increase while maintaining and enhancing user experience in the home, office, and public hotspot scenarios. The SiTel-Redpine joint design enables optimized system cost for wireless VoIP solutions in these environments,” he said. 

The SC14450 is a fully integrated DECT and VoIP device. Features include:

1. A CompactRISC™ microcontroller for general processing and Man Machine Interface (MMI) functionality and is supplemented by two user-programmable Gen2DSPs for voice CODECs and audio processing.
2. A 1.5-Watt-rms Class D power amplifier for hands-free operation
3. Power and battery management options including 1-, 2- and 3-cell configurations for Li-Ion and NiMH batteries, white LED control and high-speed interfaces to color displays
4. USB 2.0 for direct USB battery charging
5. This baseband IC allows manufacturers to offer advanced features such as color LCD MMIs, text-to-speech, animated JPEGs, Hi-Fi audio and MP3 ring tones.

This complete set of features and the distribution of the VoIP processing on its three cores make the SC14450 an ideal low-power solution for battery-operated wireless handsets. In the VoWiFi platform, it provides the complete MMI, battery management, VoIP stack, CODECs, layer-3 functions and the advanced high-end phone features.

“The VoWiFi phone platform we are announcing today in partnership with Redpine Signals shows SiTel’s commitment to provide best-in-class voice application solutions,” says Mark De Clerq, Product Marketing Manager at SiTel. “The SC14450 with its proven low power multi-core architecture and complete peripheral set is a key building block of this platform, and its combination with the RS9110 will enable our customers to develop leading-edge products for the emerging 802.11n standard in a very cost effective way.”

The jointly developed VoWiFi solution interfaces the RS9110 SoC to the SC14450 through a high-speed serial interface. A close-to-zero load WLAN driver on the host microcontroller eases the provision of complete VoIP protocol and phone handset functionality on SC14450.

Redpine’s Lite-Fi™ solution is Wi-Fi CERTIFIED for 802.11n draft 2.0 by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
 
“802.11n draft 2.0 is an advanced standard for delivering increased throughput, improved range and Quality of Service (QoS) for enhanced multimedia capabilities. In achieving Wi-Fi CERTIFIED for 802.11n draft 2.0, Redpine Signals has demonstrated its commitment to ensuring industry interoperability and the best experience for Wi-Fi users,” says Wi-Fi Alliance Senior Director, Karen Hanley.
A searchable Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products database is available at www.wi-fi.org.

For more information, visit www.sitelsemi.com