Moortec, the go-to leaders of innovative in-chip monitoring solutions today announced that its complete in-chip sensing fabric has been selected by Picocom, the 5G Open RAN baseband semiconductor and software specialist, in order to improve power consumption, performance and reliability for its compelling system-on-chip (SoC) for 5G small cell infrastructure.

Picocom’s distributed unit (DU) baseband offload SoC is designed to be deployed in cityscapes and buildings to increase 5G coverage and reduce the processing load on 5G macro cells under the Open RAN initiative. On high-performance SoCs like this, it is critically important to gain deep insights into the dynamic conditions within the silicon chip itself. Moortec’s highly configurable embedded sensing fabrics allow real-time monitoring together with chip telemetry and analytics enablement throughout a product’s lifecycle.

“We needed accurate process, voltage and temperature monitoring – Moortec’s is simply the best on the market,” said Picocom President Peter Claydon. “In addition to our engineering requirements, our customers will also benefit from being able to monitor performance over the life of the product. A 5G small cell may be operational for over a decade in potentially hostile environments, without any forced air cooling and as such it is particularly important to be able monitor them remotely in the field.”

“It’s great to be working with Picocom who are clearly taking 5G baseband development and network enablement to the next level with their unique small cell approach,” said Stephen Crosher, CEO of Moortec. “We are delighted to be extending the value of our industry-proven sensing fabrics to benefit emerging 5G technologies, allowing Picocom to achieve optimum overall device performance.”