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News Release from: PrismTech
Subject: Spectra OE
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 12 June 2006

SDR platform has compact footprint

Spectra OE is a second-generation high-performance low-overhead run-time environment for software defined radio (SDR) applications.

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PrismTech, a leading provider of productivity tools and middleware, has announced the GA release of the Spectra Operating Environment (OE) v1.0. Spectra OE is a new second generation high-performance, low-overhead run-time environment (software platform) for software defined radio (SDR) applications. Part of PrismTech's Spectra SDR Tools suite, Spectra OE provides a high-performance, low-overhead core framework (CF) and middleware implementation that runs on any mix of general purpose processor (GPP), digital signal processor (DSP), and field programmable gate array (FPGA) processor technologies.

Pre-integrated with a number of real-time operating systems (RTOSs), DSP BIOSs and register transfer logic (RTL) processors, Spectra OE is the only SDR OE built, optimised, and supported by a single vendor.

This allows PrismTech to optimise the OE footprint to under 2Mbyte: a 10x reduction in footprint compared with first-generation SDR OEs.

This ultra low footprint for a SDR OE directly translates into lower size, weight and power (SW and P) requirements and thus makes SDR viable for a wide range of resource-constrained wireless platforms.

Spectra OE is also optimised for performance across the complete run-time architecture (CF, middleware, operating system and custom transports unlike first generation OEs).

Spectra OE contains unique technology only available from PrismTech.

A pioneer in embedded middleware, PrismTech has produced ultra-low-footprint middleware for both DSP and RTL processors to 'enable' these processing elements for SDR applications without those hardware applications becoming highly hardware specific.

This breakthrough in hardware abstraction layer technology, which allows applications, middleware, and hardware to separately evolve, is a significant step forward for the whole wireless industry.

Spectra OE's vertically integrated design, standards-compliance and hardware portability combine to disconnect the software and hardware lifecycles, thus enabling radio configuration and code reuse.

This in turn helps extend the life of software applications and reduce the number of hardware platforms a radio OEM needs to support.

Thus Spectra OE's technological edge and elegance result in competitive advantage for the user.

As a pre-integrated software platform, Spectra OE also greatly reduces the complexity of the run-time environment for the developer, providing a single API rather than three or more product APIs and the associated compatibility, robustness and evolution issues.

Spectra OE is available for numerous GPP, DSP and FPGA processors and OS platforms and can be ported to practically any SDR signal processing environment.

It incorporates in a single pre-integrated package all required licensable software.

(Alternatively RTOSs can be acquired separately).

'Many alternative first generation SDR OE offerings were just bundles of two or more individual components: core frameworks, Corba ORBs, common object services', said Dominick Paniscotti, VP Engineering, SDR Products, PrismTech.

'Spectra OE has been designed and built as a complete, integrated, and optimised environment from day one so that we can offer such high performance and low overhead benefits'.

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