CEVA and Nokia Collaborate for 4.9G and 5G Technologies

Custom CEVA-XC DSPs in Nokia ReefShark baseband, to support the massive scale requirements of 5G

BARCELONA, Spain, - Mobile World Congress - March 01, 2018 – CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA), the leading licensor of signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors for smarter, connected devices, today announced that it is supporting Nokia in the development of its ReefShark baseband System-on-Chips (SoCs), set to be deployed for 4.9G and 5G wireless infrastructure. Under the agreement, CEVA has adapted its widely-deployed CEVA-XC architecture framework to address the massive increase in signal processing complexity in multi-RAT (Radio Access Technology) network architectures.

Nokia ReefShark is based on 3GPP 5G New Radio specifications, which help offset deployment costs and TCO, while fulfilling architecture-driven network requirements. ReefShark reduces the size, cost and energy consumption at each cell site, while simultaneously boosting the intelligence and performance of massive MIMO antennas. ReefShark also boosts baseband compute capacity through plug-in units fitted into the commercially available Nokia AirScale baseband module. AirScale is software-upgradeable to full 5G functionality, and these plug-in units triple the throughput from Nokia's advanced 28 Gbps today, to up to 85 Gbps per module.

“The CEVA-XC framework is a highly renowned DSP architecture for communications processing and is ideal to meet the stringent performance requirements of next generation 4.9G and 5G base stations,” said Henri Tervonen, CTO and Head of R&D Foundation, Mobile Networks, Nokia. “We, along with our silicon partners, have collaborated closely with CEVA on developing a custom version of the CEVA-XC for ReefShark, adopting new practices, methodologies and advanced process nodes that allow us to fully realize the capabilities that the 5G standard will bring.”

“We are extremely proud to announce our collaboration with Nokia, a global leader in LTE and 5G network infrastructure,” said Issachar Ohana, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales at CEVA. “This collaboration is a direct result of our strong competencies and investment in advanced DSP technologies for next generation heterogeneous networks. It further expands our foothold as the end-to-end wireless DSP provider, covering base stations, terminals, cellular IoT and any other form of cellular enabled device.”

CEVA's industry-leading DSP cores power many of the world's leading wireless semiconductors and OEMs, enabling unrivaled power consumption, performance and cost efficiencies in multimode terminal and infrastructure solutions. To date, three of the world’s leading base station OEMs have selected CEVA-XC DSPs for their 5G base station processor designs. The CEVA-XC family of DSPs is designed specifically to overcome the stringent power consumption, time-to-market and cost constraints associated with developing high-performance multimode baseband solutions. It supports multiple air interfaces for various applications such as cellular baseband, wireless infrastructure, connectivity, V2X, UAV communications, satellite and smart grid. For more information, visit https://www.ceva-dsp.com/app/wireless-communication/.

About CEVA, Inc.
CEVA is the leading licensor of signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors for a smarter, connected world. We partner with semiconductor companies and OEMs worldwide to create power-efficient, intelligent and connected devices for a range of end markets, including mobile, consumer, automotive, industrial and IoT. Our ultra-low-power IPs for vision, audio, communications and connectivity include comprehensive DSP-based platforms for LTE/LTE-A/5G baseband processing in handsets, infrastructure and machine-to-machine devices, advanced imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device, audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. For artificial intelligence, we offer a family of AI processors capable of handling the complete gamut of neural network workloads, on-device. For connectivity, we offer the industry’s most widely adopted IPs for Bluetooth (low energy and dual mode) and Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax up to 4x4). Visit us at www.ceva-dsp.com