Cognovo has launced Software Defined Modem (SDM) platform designed to significantly reduce cost, size and design complexity for developers of cellular handsets and other wireless enabled consumer electronic products. 

Cognovo claims that the SDM platform is already under evaluation at leading handset OEMs who are seeing for themselves how Cognovo’s software centric design flow changes the rules for next generation wireless terminal development: greater flexibility, halved costs and size, and time to market reduced, all without compromising power consumption. The technology, originating from research carried out at ARM, is expected to appear in handsets during 2012.

Will Strauss, President of Forward Concepts siad, “The Software Defined Radio concept has been around for a while, but with the move to HSPA and LTE a more flexible approach is becoming essential. Cognovo’s combination of disruptive processor technology with a set of supporting software and tools promises to enable handset makers to bring products to market much faster than before and with significant cost savings in the modem - the most critical part of a wireless terminal.”

The Cognovo SDM platform comprises the Modem Compute Engine (MCE); a licensable processor sub-system, the innovative SDM Operating System (SDM-OS) and a fully integrated development suite. In contrast with a traditional hardware-based modem design, Cognovo’s programmable approach makes it possible for OEMs and platform providers to reduce next-generation multimode development times by 9-12 months. In addition, handset developers can freeze designs much closer to deployment, as standards and requirements become fixed.

“The software and system support that Cognovo has brought to the Software Defined Modem platform complements the many years of development by ARM of the Ardbeg Vector Signal Processor,” said Warren East, CEO, ARM. “We are delighted with the rapid progress made by the Cognovo team and look forward to seeing end products utilising the platform to enhance the user mobile experience.”

The Cognovo SDM platform is dimensioned for handsets and portable devices capable of LTE Category 4 (150Mbps) but also scales to support multi-mode operation with other standards. A single-engine supporting WCDMA, HSPA, HSPA+, LTE and WiMAX enables a multimode baseband IC to be realised in a core die of less than 6mm2 in 32nm geometry - significantly smaller than conventional modem ICs.

Gordon Aspin, CEO of Cognovo commented, “Our platform for LTE handsets is a ground-up design, not just a re-targeting of a legacy product; and the MCE is more than just a processor, it’s a platform solution for SDM.” Aspin continued, “The SDM-OS operating system and the ARM-compatible tools make the Cognovo solution very easy to use, so existing development teams can very quickly adapt to the new way of implementing modems.”

Founded in 2009 by the former TTPCom executive team and strengthened by the spin-out of ARM’s Ardbeg Vector Signal Processor activity, Cognovo has already released products to market. Cognovo has offices in Cambridge UK and Leuven, Belgium.