Cambridge Consultants reveal world’s first all-digital radio transmitter

Unlike software-defined radio (SDR), the breakthrough – named Pizzicato – is not a mixture of analogue and digital components but is completely digital, which can enable new ways of using the radio spectrum intelligently.

When transmitting data, only low frequency signals of 1GHz or lower propagate well over distance or through walls, so they are in great demand. Expanding to make use of frequencies of 10GHz and beyond will require techniques such as meshing and beamforming to compensate for the frequencies poor range. However, the analogue parts of radios are becoming an increasing bottleneck in allowing this.

“Crowding 50 analogue radios together on one chip, switching their operational parameters every few microseconds and expecting them to work at 60GHz is an analogue designers nightmare,” said Monty Barlow, director of wireless technology at Cambridge Consultants. “With Pizzicato, we have created a glimpse of future disruptive technology – a radio built purely from computing power.”