In the new infrastructure era, Socionext is committed to accelerating the development of 5G with its core technology

On December 10-11, at the 2020 China Integrated Circuit Design Industry Annual Conference and Chongqing Integrated Circuit Industry Innovation and Development Summit Forum (ICCAD 2020), Ms. Hao Dongyan, China Marketing Director of Socionext, was invited to deliver a keynote speech entitled "SoC Promotes 5G Network Deployment in the New Infrastructure Era", which comprehensively introduced Socionext's core IP and large-scale SoC design capabilities and experience in the field of network applications. 

Commercialization speeds up to leverage trillion-level market

Since the concept of "new infrastructure" was first proposed at the Central Economic Work Conference in 2018, the central and local governments have continuously issued relevant policies to promote its development. Especially in the current complex global environment, the impact of the epidemic, and the challenges faced by industrial upgrading and transformation, new infrastructure has been given high hopes. Among them, 5G, as an important component of new infrastructure, will fully accelerate the digital and intelligent transformation of thousands of industries.

According to a report by market research firm IDC, my country will build more than 600,000 5G macro base stations in 2020, and the cumulative number of domestic base stations will reach 5.5 million by 2025. At the same time, the amount of wireless network equipment closely related to base stations and even 5G core technology chips will also maintain a steady growth in total scale in the next few years.

Digital Networks on a Chip

From optical transmission backbone networks to metropolitan area networks, to data center interconnections and internal data center interconnections, to optical access networks; from wireless access networks to microwave communication backhaul, all of this network infrastructure relies on the strong support of core component chips. 

Figure 2: Full network topology and Socionext SoC product applications

Ms. Hao Dongyan said that Socionext has been deeply involved in the network field for many years. Thanks to its core IP such as high-speed ADDA and large-scale SoC design capabilities and experience, the company's solutions in the field of network applications cover long-distance optical transmission networks, metropolitan area networks, data centers, wireless fronthaul/backhaul and wireless access, etc., which can basically cover every corner of the entire network.

Focus on "core" and build a new 5G ecosystem

It is said that "5G construction must start with bearer", and the optical transmission of the 5G bearer network provides flexible and reliable technical support for 5G construction. Ms. Hao Dongyan pointed out that Socionext is an important participant hidden behind the 5G construction. The company has been following the evolution trend of advanced technology and playing a leading role in industry technology. In the field of optical transmission, Socionext successfully developed the first 40G DSP based on 90nm process for optical transmission network in 2008, and launched the world's first 100G oDSP based on 65nm process in 2010, with a high-speed ADDA sampling rate of 56Gbps, creating the first milestone in global Internet and data transmission. For many years, Socionext has been closely at the forefront of advanced technology and has continuously optimized and evolved its core IP ADDA. At present, the ADDA sampling rate based on 7nm process can reach 128G. Socionext's current network business is mainly focused on the 5G wireless network field, but the oDSP technology based on high-speed ADDA will continue to evolve in the industry.

Compared with the traditional 4G network, the 5G wireless access network has evolved into a three-level architecture of CU, DU and AAU, which can configure the network more flexibly to meet the diverse needs of 5G scenarios. Socionext's SoC technology and solutions can cover all parts of the wireless access network (as shown in Figure 2 below). Ms. Hao Dongyan introduced that in the AAU unit, Socionext provides key technologies such as RF direct sampling and zero intermediate frequency, directly sampling and converting high-frequency analog signals into digital signals, and then performing digital pre-distortion processing, etc. Especially in the 5G era, MIMO large-scale antennas have been introduced, so this technology can greatly improve the integration of RF units, simplify hardware design and reduce costs. In addition, Socionext also provides solutions for large-scale computing and processing complex algorithms based on multi-core processors on baseband units.

Figure 3: Socionext 5G solution

In the three-level architecture of 5G wireless access network, there are currently no standard commercial chips for CU and DU units, and customized SoC solutions are needed. The design of such chips includes ultra-large-scale circuit design with more than 1 billion gates, and the huge and complex calculations have high requirements for power consumption. Ms. Hao Dongyan said: "Challenges are opportunities. With many years of industry design experience and rich IP product portfolio, Socionext has cooperated with local Chinese companies and deeply participated in the development of a series of Chinese independent intellectual property 5G core chips, helping to accelerate the construction of a new 5G network ecosystem."

Empowering China's new infrastructure with chips

At present, China is accelerating the layout of new infrastructure, and the foundation of new infrastructure lies in chips. Whether it is 5G network, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet of Things, big data center, cloud computing, etc., chips are needed to support the implementation of the project. Driven by the industry, the chip industry is facing huge development opportunities.

Socionext has been established for 5 years. With the rich design experience and technology accumulation of its predecessor, well-known Japanese semiconductor companies Fujitsu Semiconductor and Panasonic Semiconductor, the company has been continuously evolving new technologies while vigorously promoting local development and supporting local social and economic development. Socionext hopes to build on its years of technological accumulation and work with more local companies to accelerate the development of China's new infrastructure with the power of the industrial chain.