Zynq powers MIMO antenna supporting multi-frequency SDR by Mobilicom

Date: 16/07/2013
Mobilicom's new MCU-30 software-defined radio (SDR) is designed using Xilinx's Zynq-7030 All Programmable System-on-a-Chip (SoC), a member of Xilinx's Zynq-7000 family. The configurable hardware and the hardened processor system inside Zynq enables design of highly flexible system. Mobilicom's MCU-30 SDR supports multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna diversity for better multipath performance, multiple operating frequency bands, on-the-move communication, and multi-hop capability for extended communication range, the MCU-30 SDR can be used to provide seamless communication anywhere without the need of any commercial wireless infrastructure.

"The outstanding combination of digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities, ARM processor-based performance and reprogrammable logic made Xilinx's Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC the obvious choice as the core of our new MCU-30 SDR. Not only does it meet the programmable systems integration requirements of the MCU-30 SDR, but it has also helped us to speed product development and achieve a lower bill-of-materials (BOM) compared to a multi-chip ASIC or ASSP design," said Yossi Segal, vice president of research and development at Mobilicom. "In addition, the exceptionally low power requirements of the Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC enabled us to maximize battery life, which is especially critical for public safety and other mobile applications."

Xilinx says "Mobilicom's design engineers used the Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC as the heart of its MCU-30 SDR platform to develop a custom advanced wireless networking protocol without the major expense and risk of custom ASIC development. By taking advantage of the Zynq-7030 All Programmable SoC's ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore processing system with tightly coupled programmable logic on a single die, Mobilicom's design team developed a solution with a robust and adaptive ad-hoc wireless networking protocol using an LTE PHY and their custom MAC and Layer 2 software."

"Our success with Mobilicom is another example of the great fit Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs provides for public safety radio applications," said Yousef Khalilollahi, senior director of business segments at Xilinx. "By integrating processors, DSP and reprogrammable logic onto a single device with small form factor and low power, the Zynq-7000 family is a natural fit for the public safety radio systems design requirements."