BitWave Semiconductor, programmable transceivers: Softranceiver

Venture capital money has been tight for semiconductor startups recently, but as always there are exceptions to the rule. One hot area is digital amplifiers. We wrote about digital amplifiers and BlackSand technologies in particular here and here. The other hot area is programmable transceivers, which is where BitWave Semiconductor comes into play. The company was formed in 2004 with the mission to assist cell phone manufacturers by reducing the number of chips needed to support all the different wireless standards, thus enabling them to offer more features in a smaller package and at a lower price. If you don’t think there are that many wireless standards, you might want to reconsider: GSM, WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, AMPS, NAMPS, CDMA, CDMA2000, 1xRTT, EV-DO, CDPD, DVB-H, MediaFLO, DMB, Wi-Fi, WiMax, WiBro, UWB, Bluetooth, GPS, DAB, AM/FM, DECT, etc.

The solution to this mess, at least according to BitWave, is what the company calls Softranceiver Technology, which according to their website is the combination of “the art of analog with the science of digital.” Essentially, the Softranceiver architecture integrates digital control for many of the analog components. Thus, an API can be utilized to set proper registers which in turn control the output of the analog blocks. The result is that a single transceiver can be programmed to support many different wireless standards, significantly reducing the component integration costs. BitWave’s approach differs significantly from software-defined radio (SDR) in that it does not rely on digitizing the incoming signal via an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and then processing it via a DSP, which according to BitWave’s President and CEO Dr. Michael Farese, leads to high-power consumption and has not been implemented successfully in a mobile device. An interview with Michael in which he describes several additional Softranceiver advantages can be found over at WTRS.

Currently, the Softranceiver is slated for volume production and general availability in the second quarter of 2008, and will be branded as the BW1102 Softranceiver RFIC. To make the commercialization happen, the company raised an additional $10 million in B-round funding from Apex Venture Partners, TVM Capital, and Ecentury Capital Partners last month. Clearly, the applications of this technology extend far beyond cell phones to just about any device that requires multi-mode, multi-band wireless capability. The potential market for this technology seems very appealing given the current growth rate for mobile devices. As long as the API is reasonable, and the transceiver works as promised, the potential rewards for the company could be enormous.