The ASUKA SoC was developed to fill a gap in the market for specialised 5G IoT communication chips.
Intended to help ‘democratise’ cellular IoT, the ASUKA SoC offers a customisable alternative to traditional "black box" 5G SoCs, leveraging a software-defined radio (SDR) architecture enabled by the Ceva-PentaG platform. It is intended to ensure future-proof flexibility and allows for customised communication functions and support for emerging 6G standards.
"Our goal with the ASUKA SoC is to make 5G and beyond cellular IoT communications more accessible and widespread," said Toyofumi Horikawa, Sharp Semiconductor Innovation Corporation. "By partnering with Ceva and leveraging their expertise in cellular processing, we have realised a cutting-edge SoC that is customisable to address any cellular IoT terminal application or standard, today and in the future."
Commenting Michael Boukaya, Chief Operation Officer of Ceva, said, "Our Ceva-PentaG2 provides customers with the industry’s most advanced 5G platform IP, reducing risk and time-to-market for the development of cutting-edge cellular modems that support the most advanced applications with industry-leading efficiency and performance."
ASUKA is a software-defined SoC, for IoT user equipment (UE) to promote the spread of IoT UE in the Beyond 5G (6G) era. It features a scalable architecture that allows for functional modifications, enabling it to keep pace with the continuous evolution of communication standards.
The SoC includes various expansion interfaces such as PCIe (Gen4), JESD204B, and USB 3.0, allowing functions to be customised via PC connections.
For developers, the ASUKA board provides a customisable development environment that enables coordination between base stations and terminals. Users can customise the UE alongside base stations, allowing for simultaneous customisation of both - this facilitates the construction of IoT solutions, implementation of new features, and verification in an SDR development environment.
The Ceva-PentaG2 IP platform is a comprehensive solution for implementing 5G modems, specifically designed for lower-throughput applications such as RedCap, and other cellular IoT applications.
Highly efficient, the platform integrates advanced DSPs and accelerators to enable optimal signal chain processing and includes a complete 5G PHY software implementation. With its scalable and flexible architecture, the Ceva-PentaG2 IP platform supports a wide range of applications, from high-performance mobile broadband to low-power IoT devices.
