TRADE NEWS: Agilent Technologies, Altair Semiconductor Team Up to Accelerate LTE Device and Test Equipment Maturity

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) and Altair Semiconductor today announced they will jointly conduct interoperability testing and validation testing using Altair’s 4G LTE chipset in conjunction with the Agilent PXT wireless communications test set and N6070A-series signaling conformance test software. The joint effort will accelerate the development of LTE devices and testing solutions into new operating bands.

Altair’s LTE chip portfolio includes the FourGee-3100 baseband and FourGee-6200 RFIC chipsets. The FourGee-3100 is a 3GPP LTE baseband processor that supports LTE category 3 throughputs (100Mbps/50Mbps DL/UL respectively). The chip implements a 20-MHz MIMO receiver and is based on a proprietary, cutting-edge O²P software-defined radio processor. The processor offers performance that significantly exceeds traditional communications DSP cores, yet consumes a fraction of the power. The FourGee-6200 is a multiband RF transceiver that supports any 3GPP LTE band in the range of 700 MHz to 2700 MHz. The chipset supports FDD as well as TDD versions of the LTE standard and, together with Altair’s software stack, has been extensively interoperability-tested with leading infrastructure vendors in multiple-band and duplex configurations.

“Having a prestigious test equipment vendor like Agilent on board for interoperability testing is of huge importance to Altair,” said Eran Eshed, cofounder and VP of Marketing and Business Development at Altair Semiconductor. “Verifying and certifying leading-edge designs is always a challenge, and this collaboration ensures that the chipset technology and the testing solutions move forward together at an accelerated pace, allowing our products to be brought to market quickly and efficiently.”

“Our work with Altair lends to our on-going interoperability testing with the PXT and validation of Agilent’s conformance test solutions,” said Guy Séné, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Microwave and Communications Division. “Altair’s chipset will be used to further increase the capability of our LTE test platforms, expanding our design verification and conformance test capability into new operating bands.”

As network operators introduce LTE into new spectrum allocations, new end-user devices must be certified using a test platform that has been validated for each frequency-band, bandwidth and duplex arrangement (FDD and TDD). In addition to interoperability testing, the Altair chipset will be used for validation of 3GPP test cases running on the Agilent N6070A-series Signaling Conformance Test solution.

For additional information about the Agilent E6621A PXT wireless communications test set, go to www.agilent.com/find/PXT. For additional information about the N6070A series signaling conformance test, go to www.agilent.com/find/N6070A. More information about Agilent’s LTE design and test portfolio is available at www.agilent.com/find/LTE.

About Altair Semiconductor

Altair Semiconductor is the world’s leading developer of ultra-low-power, small-footprint and high-performance 4G semiconductors. The company’s products provide device manufacturers integrating 4G LTE technology into their products with a highly power-optimized, robust and cost-effective solution. Altair’s comprehensive product portfolio includes baseband processors, multi-band RF transceivers for both FDD and TDD bands, and a range of reference hardware and product level protocol stack software. Based on a novel, proprietary software-defined radio processor, codenamed “O2P”, Altair’s products are the smallest and most highly power optimized in the industry, offering an unmatched combination of flexibility and performance. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.altair-semi.com. Follow Altair on Twitter: @AltairSemi

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, electronics and communications. The company’s 18,500 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $5.4 billion in fiscal 2010. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.

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