Trends in DSP

A new specification was released that, for the first time, "standardizes" the software and firmware infrastructure for a broad base of specialized signal processing devices used within the baseband signal/modem processing engines of an advanced wireless system. Dubbed MHAL, or modem hardware abstraction layer, this open specification facilitates the reuse of the functional software and firmware components that implement a radio's physical layer channel processing across different radio platforms. The benefits of such a specification are obvious: code reuse such as this provides significant savings in both the time to market and cost of development for subsequent radio products or upgrades to existing products. This in turn allows wireless original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to offer their customers radio technologies with new features and capabilities faster and at reduced overall cost. Even with this benefit, however, a question remains as to whether MHAL will be broadly adopted across the wireless market.