Spreadtrum licenses CEVA-XC DSP for LTE baseband

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: CEVA Inc., the leading licensor of silicon intellectual property (SIP) platform solutions and DSP cores, announced that Spreadtrum Communications, Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor provider in China with advanced technology in 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards, has licensed the CEVA-XC DSP processor for its LTE baseband processor designs. This latest agreement extends the two companies' long-term strategic partnership, which spans a broad range of 2G, 3G and now 4G wireless communication standards.

TD-LTE is the fourth-generation (4G) wireless standard being deployed by the world's largest cellular operator, China Mobile, following on from the deployment of the China homegrown 3G standard, TD-SCDMA. Spreadtrum is a leading baseband player in the TD-SCDMA and GSM markets.

"The CEVA-XC DSP's combination of performance, scalability and low-power underpinned our decision to partner with CEVA for our multi-mode LTE products," said Dr. Leo Li, president and CEO of Spreadtrum Communications. "CEVA's technology combined with its development tools and engineering support play a key role in LTE deployment."

"We are delighted to expand our partnership with Spreadtrum for the emerging TD-LTE market." said Gideon Wertheizer, CEO of CEVA. "The combination of Spreadtrum's world-class expertise in wireless communications with our industry-leading CEVA-XC DSP will enable Spreadtrum to build on their strong success in 2G and 3G and become a leading player in the Chinese 4G market."

CEVA-XC is a high-performance, scalable, low-power communication DSP designed specifically to overcome the stringent power consumption, time-to-market and cost constraints associated with developing high-performance multi-mode solutions. It supports multiple air interfaces for various applications such as multi-mode cellular baseband, connectivity, digital broadcast and smart grid.

CEVA's industry-leading DSP cores power many of the world's leading wireless semiconductors, enabling unrivalled power consumption, performance and cost efficiencies in 2G / 3G / 4G solutions. CEVA has more than 35 cellular baseband design wins to date, including more than 15 design wins for LTE, targeting a wide range of handset, mobile broadband and wireless infrastructure applications. In total, more than 2 billion CEVA-powered cellular baseband processors have shipped.