Turbo driven design

Cambridge Consultants has developed a software program that accelerates the selection of turbo codes for wireless communication systems. Turbo codes are a class of recently-developed high-performance error correction codes finding use in applications where designers seek to achieve maximum information transfer over a limited-bandwidth communication link in the presence of data-corrupting noise.

Called TurboDesigner, the tool reportedly addresses the real-world issues that electronic design teams implementing wireless basestations and terminals face when looking to adopt a turbo code based forward error correction (FEC) strategy - allowing the rapid simulation of application-specific coding/decoding.

Available as an element of Cambridge Consultants' design services, the software can rapidly reveal the optimum FEC strategy, potentially eliminating weeks of complex design and evaluation using conventional methods such as Monte Carlo simulation.

The new MATLAB-based software can speed and simplify the adoption of turbo codes, which have the potential to generate step-function improvements in wireless system performance with minimal impact on product bill of material costs.