Picocom introduces High performance, low power SoCs for 5G small base Station Open RAN RF units

     Picocom has introduced a new, fully optimized PC805 system-on-chip (SoC) to help the industry further improve the performance of 5G small cell Open RAN Radio frequency units (O-RU). Designed to simplify the design and production of 5G NR/LTE small base station O-RU, this highly integrated, small-size, low-power SoC chip with a forward pass rate of up to 25Gbps can support both CPRI and eCPRI interfaces as well as major 5G NR/LTE bands around the world, including China. It further facilitates the deployment of small base stations in a variety of application scenarios, including enterprise, industrial, third-party neutral operators, and private networks.

     Using the PC805 greatly simplifies the O-RU design process and significantly reduces material costs compared to existing solutions. The PC805 SoC connects directly to the distributed unit (O-DU) via an open front-end interface (Split 7.2 or Split 8) and supports seamless connection to the radio frequency unit (RFIC) via a standardized JESD204B high-speed serial interface. Along with the PC805 chip, Bikoci also offers a fully integrated, O-RAN compliant 5G NR RU and Management Plane (M-plane) software suite.

     Picocom CEO Yingbo Jiang said, "Most existing O-RU products are based on FPGA technology, which requires hardware redesign to meet the needs of different application scenarios. We need to take advantage of these new opportunities and adopt more targeted solutions that can meet the requirements of new scenarios with simple software changes. That is why I am very pleased to present Bikoci's SoC chips optimized for small base station RF units with full flexibility. "The PC805 will usher in a new era of small cell deployment to meet customers' growing demand for more carrier aggregation and flexible use of spectrum."

     As 5G deployments advance, operators want to be able to aggregate spectrum across different bands, especially for third-party neutral operators, who often need to support frequency allocations from multiple mobile operators or aggregate non-contiguous bands in a shared spectrum. The PC805 supports these application scenarios with minimal additional components, significantly reducing capex and operating costs. In short, with the PC805 chip and the RF and power supply, you have a set that can meet the needs of the Chinese market while supporting developers to provide a diverse range of O-RU products for the global market.

     The PC805 can aggregate four or more 4T4R carriers within 200 MHz instantaneous bandwidth (IBW) and is suitable for the relevant bands in China (such as n41 and n78), the CBRS bands in the United States and the growing number of similar bands in other countries (such as the n77 shared access band in the United Kingdom). A single PC805 can also support multiple bands, including TDD and FDD for 5G NR and LTE, and the cascade of two PC805 SoCs can double the bandwidth supported. The O-RU solution with the PC805 can also be customized for different market configurations, such as the CPRI interface that is widely used in the Chinese market to support Split 8 for a wider range of applications.

     Along with the PC805 comes a complete software suite and the accompanying RU demo board, the PC805RDB, to simplify development and speed time to market. The PC805RDB is a flexible 5G NR/LTE Radio frequency unit (RU) board for demonstrating the PC805 SoC with an onboard RF transceiver, RF front end, and associated support circuitry and software.