Singapore-based RF IP provider Sirius Wireless collaborated with Californian FPGA prototyping company S2C to develop a Wifi 6 and Bluetooth RF IP verification system to improve efficiency and reduce time to market.

The emergence of Wifi 6 has unleashed unexpected potential, particularly in the IoT and intelligent hardware markets. Compared with Wifi 5, Wi-Fi 6 enables 40% faster data transmission speeds, increased device connectivity, and improved battery life, making it widely adopted in IoT devices. Due to the specialised RF IP technology behind Wifi6, only a few companies can provide such technology with Sirius being one of them.

Leveraging S2C’s Prodigy S7-9P logic system, Sirius designed the Wifi 6 and Bluetooth RF IP verification system with A-D and D-A conversion and the RF analogue front-end as separate modules. The company then used Prodigy prototype ready IP, which comprises ready-to-use daughter cards and accessories from S2C, to interface with digital mac. This design approach reduces the complexity of verification design by allowing the modules to be individually debugged.

In addition, the system can serve as a demonstration platform prior to tape-out to showcase the various RF performance indicators, including throughput, reception sensitivity and EVM.

S2C FPGA prototyping can benefit users in accelerating their time to market by shortening the entire chip verification cycle. They can conduct end-to-end verification by leveraging the IO connectors on the daughter boards. An example of such benefits is Sirius’ development of its IP verification system. With this, one of Sirius’s customers on short-range wireless chip designs spent only two months to complete the pre-silicon hardware performance analysis and performance comparison test. The company thus saved over 30% in its production verification time and its product introduction cycle.

“S2C has more than 20 years of experience in the market,” said Zhu Songde, vice president at Sirius Wireless. “Their prototyping options are widely recognised around the world. With S2C’s complete prototype tool chain, we can speed up the deployment of prototyping environments and improve verification efficiency.”

S2C vice president Ying Chen added: “We realise that a thriving ecosystem is crucial to market expansion. We are working with our partners to provide better services for our customers in the chip design industry. Our partnership with Sirius Wireless is a successful story of that.”

Headquartered in Singapore, Sirius Wireless (www.sirius-wireless.com) was registered and established in 2018. The company has R&D staff with more than 15 years of working experience in wifi, Bluetooth RF, ASICs, software and hardware.

S2C (www.s2cinc.com) is a supplier of FPGA prototyping for SoC and ASIC designs. It has been delivering rapid SoC prototyping since 2003. With over 600 customers, including six of the world’s top 15 semiconductor companies, it has offices and sales representatives in the USA, Europe, China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan.