NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Nov. 08, 2011 - Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSPD), a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for network infrastructure applications, and Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PWAV), a global supplier of advanced solutions for wireless communications networks, today announced their collaboration to deliver advanced long-term evolution (LTE) small cell solutions to public safety, military and 4G mobile broadband markets.

Powerwave’s LTE picocells are compact LTE and Wi-Fi base stations that deliver up to 15 times greater overall system capacity and a ubiquitous multi-megabyte user experience. The company’s small cell technology increases capacity in areas with high-data usage or weak network signals anywhere, anytime in indoor and outdoor environments.

“Powerwave sees small cell base stations as an economical way to build out the existing network infrastructure that immediately meets the needs of today’s mobile users and can scale to serve the demands of tomorrow’s heterogeneous networks,” said Khurram Sheikh, chief technical officer of Powerwave. “Mindspeed’s baseband system-on chip (SoC) technology was designed specifically for this type of application and delivers multi-standard operation with carrier-grade performance.”

James Johnston, chief technical officer in the communications convergence processing business unit at Mindspeed, will join Sheikh on the Evolution of Small Cells & Intelligent Networks panel at the RCR Wireless Conference on November 10, 2011 at the Hilton Orange County in Costa Mesa, Calif. Part of the RCR Wireless Global Tour and Conference Series, the RCR Orange County Conference is an interactive discussion on current mobile broadband trends and how mobile broadband is driving investment, innovation and economic growth. Both companies will demonstrate small cell technology solutions at the event.

“Mindspeed is delighted to announce that the first pre-production order of our Transcede SoCs will be used by Powerwave in the company’s next-generation picocell products,” said Mindspeed CEO Raouf Y. Halim. “Powerwave is a true innovator in the mobile infrastructure sector and is at the forefront of small cell development with their unique Inside Out solutions methodology and a product portfolio that delivers mobile broadband coverage and capacity closer to subscribers, both indoors and outside.”

Mindspeed®’s award-winning Transcede processor is the first fully-integrated SoC eNodeB solution offering 3GPP Release 8-compliant LTE Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3 processing for small cells. Featuring the highest levels of baseband integration, it enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to leverage Mindspeed’s carrier-class software architecture and programming model across the entire family of Transcede processors, and to scale designs from enterprise femtocells and picocells to microcells and other evolutionary form factors. Transcede-powered designs leverage significant, multi-layer processing power and hardware acceleration on a single SoC with optimal power consumption.
Industry analyst firm Mobile Experts LLC predicts the number of ‘alternative’ cell shipments will overtake the number of macrocell shipments for the first time during 2011. Mobile Experts also suggests that multi-core processors will enable the growth of carrier-grade small cells, with deployment of more than 19 million enterprise and carrier small cells predicted in 2016.