networkZONE Products for the week of October 20, 2003
IceFyre Says . . .
Wi-Fi Hi-Fi - IceFyre's 802.11a & 802.11a/b/g
Chipsets Double Wi-Fi Range with Half the Power Consumption
Peak Power Consumption as Low as 720 mW Open Doors to High-Speed
WLAN in Ultra-Portable Devices
IceFyre Semiconductor, Inc., has released details of its innovative SureFyre 802.11a and TwinFyre 802.11a/b/g chipsets. IceFyre's full system solutions deliver greater performance, power efficiency and system flexibility at a competitive cost, meeting the requirements of next-generation, high-growth WLAN equipment markets. These emerging markets include audio-visual (A/V) and consumer media products, PC devices and enterprise infrastructure equipment. More than 30 groundbreaking patents cover the system architecture, as well as digital, mixed signal and analog circuit designs.
"High power consumption and limited performance have been barriers to the adoption of 802.11a-based systems, especially in high-volume, ultra-portable devices," said Connie Wong, Analyst, Semico Research. "IceFyre's innovative SureFyre 802.11a and TwinFyre 802.11a/b/g systems, remove these barriers. With these systems, IceFyre enables A/V, consumer electronic and ultra-portable devices that will drive future growth in the WLAN market."
"In setting new benchmarks for performance, power efficiency and system design flexibility, IceFyre's innovative SureFyre 802.11a and TwinFyre 802.11a/b/g products stand alone in their ability to enable next-generation WLAN products," said Naoki Urano, senior technical specialist, Sharp Corporation. "IceFyre's value proposition will provide our products with a strong competitive advantage in the consumer electronics and A/V markets."
Double the Range at All Standard Data Rates
SureFyre and TwinFyre systems set new standards in 802.11a performance.
They deliver the industry's highest RF (radio frequency) output power at
54 Mbit/s (megabits per second), peaking at over 1.1 watt (W) with the chipset.
Standard specifications are exceeded in all key areas, with up to 10 decibel
(dB) better receive sensitivity and 2 dB better transmit signal linearity
(EVM). In outdoor point-to-point bridging applications, the resulting link
budget delivers 54 Mbit/s over a distance of 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles)
all for under 2.0 W peak power consumption. The performance benchmarks continue
indoors where 150 nanosecond (ns) delay spread tolerance as well as the
industry's only implementations of per packet antenna diversity and Transmit
per Packet Power Control (TPPC), combine to more than double the range over
alternative 802.11a solutions at all standard data rates with better than
specification packet error rates (PER) (including more than 40 meters at
54 Mbit/s and 6 percent PER) and minimum network interference.
The TwinFyre system adds superior 802.11b/g performance including -30 dB EVM in 802.11b and -27 dB EVM in 802.11g operation respectively, over 20 dBm average RF output power and 150 ns delay spread at 54 Mbit/s, to provide the industry's best-performing 802.11a/b/g solution.
Powerful Chip Control Maximizes Battery Life
With a radio control module enabling block-by-block power control of the
physical (PHY) layer complementing an ultra-low power, hardware state-machine
based Media Access Controller (MAC), SureFyre and TwinFyre consume significantly
less power in all modes of operation: 50 percent reduction in peak transmit
power consumption, 20 percent less receive power, and 5 mW in sleep mode.
Distinct low-power modes ensure that average power consumption is minimized.
For example, converged cell phones, with the wireless LAN active, easily
achieve the target of less than 200 mW.
720 mW Peak Power Consumption Enables 54 Mbit/s Performance in All
Devices
Enabling ultra-portable devices with wireless LAN is not simply a matter
of reducing average power consumption. To maximize features, WLAN chipset
power consumption must fall below a specified peak, for example, 800 mW
in PDAs. SureFyre and TwinFyre with the industry's lowest peak transmit
power consumption levels -- as low as 720 mW -- remove all barriers to delivering
54 Mbit/s WLAN performance in ultra-portable devices such as digital cameras,
PDAs and VoIP phones. Alternative 802.11a/g solutions, all of which consume
around 2W peak (more than double that of SureFyre and TwinFyre), are not
well suited for these applications.
System Partitioning Maximizes Design Flexibility
The MAC + PHY (BBP & RF) partitioning of SureFyre and TwinFyre provide
designers with maximum design flexibility, supporting the implementation
of complete systems utilizing either full chipsets or PHY-only solutions
that optimally interface with embedded host-based MAC technology or proprietary
MAC ICs.
Market Evolution Demands Differentiated Silicon
The WLAN equipment market is rapidly evolving from one completely dominated
by PC-based products to a highly competitive and increasingly segmented
market driven by A/V and consumer media devices such as flat panel TV screens,
PDAs and voice-over- IP (VOIP) phones. Market analyst firm Communications
Industry Researchers forecasts the 802.11a-based WLAN IC market will grow
from 6.1M units shipped in 2003 to 83.9M units shipped in 2007, with the
total value of the WLAN IC market forecast rising to $1.7B in 2007. According
to analyst firm Forward Concepts, the total WLAN market is forecast to grow
from 26 million devices shipped in 2003 to 160 million devices shipped in
2006 with A/V and consumer media devices accounting for a full 60 percent
of the market in 2006.
This new class of A/V and consumer media devices requires network solutions that cover the "whole home" at 54 Mbit/s with under 10 percent PER for superior throughput, from a single access point. They must also deliver this performance in the presence of legacy 802.11b devices and have a high tolerance to multipath. While these performance requirements alone are too demanding for most 802.11a/g solutions today, these systems have an even greater challenge meeting the ultra-low power consumption requirements of many next-generation devices. To maximize device features including color screens, cameras and WLAN, designers of many next-generation applications are demanding WLAN subsystems with peak power consumption under 1W. To improve the utility of portable devices, very low average system power consumption is critical to extend battery life.
In addition, designers of PC-based products will look to provide seamless dual-band operation, improved performance, expanded features and enhanced battery life. The growth and evolution of enterprise and public access infrastructure deployments will demand lower peak system power consumption (to enable power-over-Ethernet deployment), maximum RF performance (for device clustering) as well as improved network configuration and management (to maximize range with minimum interference). Furthermore, as many manufacturers utilize proprietary MAC technology or move to embed MAC functionality in host systems, they will require increased flexibility in the partitioning of WLAN subsystems.
"Current solutions do not meet the diverse product requirements of the rapidly segmenting WLAN market," said Dan Mathers, president and chief executive officer of IceFyre Semiconductor, Inc. "Delivering performance, power efficiency and system flexibility far greater than current systems, our SureFyre 802.11a and TwinFyre 802.11a/b/g systems address the challenging requirements of the emerging high-growth, next-generation WLAN products."
About SureFyre 802.11a
The SureFyre 802.11a system components:
Additional features include:
About TwinFyre 802.11a/b/g
The TwinFyre 802.11a/b/g system components:
TwinFyre-based 802.11a/b/g reference designs deliver all the unmatched
802.11a performance, power consumption and features of SureFyre plus:
Up to 17 dBm and 22 dBm output power in 802.11b and 802.11g operation respectively;
802.11g receive sensitivity up to 10 dB better than specification.
analogZONE Says . . .
It's great to see IceFyre delivering on the promises it made when I reviewed their pre-production silicon in February of this year. I won't try to re-iterate the detailed technical analysis I gave in that earlier review, but the bottom line is that their unconventional RF architecture provides excellent power efficiency and performance. Its highly-efficient (30%-40%) and switch-mode RF power amplifier improves battery life and extends range by transmitting a cleaner signal than a typical class a/b circuit. And if you're interested, it provides efficient operation across the entire Wi-Fi global spectrum (4.9 - 5.85 GHz), including the hard-to reach bands used in Japan and for long-haul point-to-point networks -- something only Envara and one or two other vendors can claim. (While most recent dual-band chip sets do cover the whole spectrum, I'd caution you to look at performance at the upper and lower ends of the frequency range.) Some of the other significant features that set IcFyre apart as one of my top four or favorite Wi-Fi five chip sets are a dynamically adaptive equalizer/decoder section that translates into superior sensitivity and performance in fading resistance. They are also one of the few companies to use antenna diversity to advantage in improving receive performance.
IceFyre has some good receiver sensitivity numbers -- an excellent first-order indicator of range. They are the only company I talked to which states the receiver threshold for both full rate (-75 dB at 54 Mbit/s) and minimum data rate (-95 dB at 6 Mbit/s). This is significantly better than the specified minimum level of -65 dB, and compares favorably with my other favorite, Envara ( they spec at -70 dB, but also have excellent adjacent channel (-6 dB) and alternate channel (-25 dB) rejection). Atheros claims an impressive -105 dB at their lowest usable data rate (probably somewhere below 6 Mbit/s) although they did not specify which band this was in.
IceFyre's power consumption is excellent in all respects, making it a great candidate for non-laptop mobile applications where battery power is at a super-premium. I would quibble, however, with the way they compare themselves against other brands. They quote the power numbers from an older Atheros chip set in their presentation (1900 mW in transmit) when the new products I reviewed recently draw significantly less power than before ( 284 mA of 3 V power in receive, and 370 mA in transmit), and appear to be much closer to IceFyre's numbers now. Of course, it's difficult to get a true apples-to-apples comparison because Atheros' power figure did not specify their RF output level (I suspect that IceFyre's is significantly higher).
IceFyre's super-efficient transmitter circuit still gives it an edge on transmit power, but the closing gap in transmit, receive and stand-by power exhibited by some of their competitor's most recent chips is indicative of the maturation of the market in general. Despite the fact that Atheros, TI and others are giving them significant competition for being the leader in low power, they will remain among the better choices for power-critical applications.
As I mentioned earlier, their three-chip approach to a full 802.11a/b/g solution has some definite plusses and minuses. Keeping the MAC function separate as they do may make a standalone solution a bit more costly, but really opens up the possibility of a smaller BOM when you attach the radio directly to an ASIC or processor which already performs the MAC functions. Integrated MACs will definitely be the way to go in high-volume products such as access points, wireless routers, broadband gateways, etc… making the IceFyre solution a very attractive candidate for many applications.
Their dual-band solution requires separate a off-chip radio for 802.11b/g operation in the 2.4 GHz band, but this is not so different from most other manufacturers other than Atheros. While the third chip does raise the possibility of a more expensive solution, they have employed some smart architectural tactics to keep the price differential down. Most of the baseband stuff is done on the ICE5825 Dual-band PHY, with only the bare-bones Tx/Rx chain left on the ICE2501 radio. The standard interface allows you to use either their "house brand" 2.4-GHz solution, or a third-party radio. While they declined to provide an estimated price for the TwinFyre chip set, I'd take a guess that it will run $5-$7 above the "under $20" quoted for their SureFyre single-band 802.11a solution.
My only real concern for IceFyre is that they are only offering an 802.11a solution now, with a dual-band product arriving on the market in mid-2004. Depending on how aggressively equipment makers drive the market, the demand for early dual-band chip sets may lose IceFyre some sockets to competitors. I also worry slightly that IceFyre is being overly-optimistic about the demand for it's single-band, 802.11a-only chip sets, no matter how good they are. But I'm an engineer and not a market analyst, so what do I know?
All in all, IceFyre has delivered on its ambitious promises to deliver performance and value that put it on my short-list of preferred Wi-Fi solutions. This should allow them to garner a nice chunk of the Wi-Fi business if their late introduction of their dual-band solution does not lose them too many sockets.
The ICE5351 and ICE5352 are sampling to customers now in the ICE5301A-EVK evaluation kit. The ICE5125 is sampling to customers now in the ICE5100A-EVK evaluation kit. SureFyre-based Mini-PCI reference designs will be available in Q4 2003. Volume production of the SureFyre 802.11a chipset will begin in Q1 2004. The TwinFyre 802.11a/b/g chipset will begin sampling to customers in Q2 2004 with volume production scheduled to commence in Q3 2004. The SureFyre chipset will be priced at around $20 in production volumes. While IceFyre declined to discuss the price for its TwinFyre dual-band chip set, I expect it will add $5 to $7 the cost of their single-band solution.
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