NEWS 5G CHIPSET RESEARCH
New ‘Center of Excellence’
NOKIA AND FINLAND’S TAMPERE UNIVERSITY JOIN FORCES TO DEVELOP 5G
CHIPSETS. NEIL TYLER REPORTS
Nokia has joined forces with Tampere University to establish a ‘Center of Excellence’ to drive
the development of System-on-Chip (SoC) custom processors for its ReefShark chipset portfolio.
The partnership, which will be based at the University campus, aims to accelerate the
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introduction of the technology into Nokia’s ReefShark chipset portfolio and enhance Nokia’s
silicon capabilities and development of proprietary SoCs. The Center of Excellence is expected
to open in November this year.
The partnership is intended to accelerate the development of proprietary SoC chipsets,
including their design and manufacture, to improve time-to-market and to build a long-term SoC
development competence and a foundation for technology leadership.
Nokia said that it will also explore areas such as machine learning, arti cial intelligence and
security hardware development as well as open source hardware based SoCs.
According to Ari Kynaslahti, Head of Product Management at Nokia, “This collaboration
highlights our continued commitment to developing our ReefShark chipset portfolio and ensures
that Nokia 5G solutions deliver a best-in-class performance to our customers.”
Addressing
5G memory
requirements
X-FAB Silicon Foundries, together with
Attopsemi, the innovator behind I-fuse onetime
programmable (OTP) IP solutions, have
entered into a collaboration to address the
memory requirements of 5G technology.
The companies have successfully quali ed
Attopsemi’s I-fuse OTP memory in relation to
X-FAB’s XR013 open-platform foundry 130nm
RF-SOI technology allowing customers to
bene t from the incorporation of a compact
(<0.2mm2 surface area) and robust OTP block
into the core XR013 technology module, but
without the need for additional or custom
processing. Read operation is possible at both
2.5V and 1.8V for MIPI compatibility.
X-FAB’s XR013 is a feature rich, openplatform,
130nm technology that is optimised
for RF applications.
The cooperation between Attopsemi and
X-FAB presents greater scope for designers
to integrate digital content with analogue
trimming or data storage into next generation
deployments, such as 5G New Radio (NR).
A key bene t is the exibility with which
RF products can address different regional
market requirements via a single chip design.
“Close collaboration with Attopsemi has
created a cost-effective OTP memory solution
for our customers using XR013,” said Dr. Greg
U’Ren, Director of RF Technology at X-FAB.
“This will be pivotal in enabling our customers
to increase their on-chip functionality.”
Cerfe Labs spins out from Arm
Arm has announced the spin-out of Cerfe
Labs to develop and license new types of
non-volatile memories based on correlated
electron materials (CeRAM) and ferroelectric
transistors (FeFETs).
Arm CeRAM researchers will join Cerfe
Labs and assume ownership of the Arm joint
development project with Symetrix.
As part of the spin-out, Arm will transfer
its full CeRAM IP portfolio of more than 150
patent families to Cerfe Labs providing the
foundation for a roadmap of related CeRAM
technologies.
Cerfe Labs said that its initial focus will
be on producing meaningful prototypes which
will be licensed to partners with a goal of
accelerating timing of enabling these novel
non-volatile materials for systems.
The new company is headquartered
in Austin, Texas and is led by Eric
Hennenhoefer and Greg Yeric two long-time
leaders from the Arm Research organisation.
Hennenhoefer will serve as CEO of Cerfe
Labs and Yeric will step into the CTO role.
“CeRAM is the industry’s most promising
non-volatile memory with characteristics
not found in any other memory technology
today,” said Hennenhoefer.
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