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It's not the semiconductor design that is the most difficult. It is implementing the signal processing requirements. Encoding of digital data stream to RF sign

It's not the semiconductor design that is the most difficult. It is implementing the signal processing requirements. Encoding of digital data stream to RF signal is difficult. Decoding a complex RF signal from amongst numerous conflicting signals, EMF, noise sources, etc is extremely difficult. To create a successful LTE chip requires GHz RF engineering skills (which are very rare) and then massive amounts of DSP programming (which are also pretty rare). The only way to acquire the required skills is to work in the field at an established vendor's R&D lab. There is no way that a hacker in a spare room can acquire the required skills. Besides you need a couple of $M for test equipment and suitable environment. As for startups, they would need to poach talent from an established LTE manufacturer and pretty much start from scratch. VCs don't like those sorts of risks.

oldsklgdfth 4y ago
Both the RF engineering and DSP programming sound immensely interesting. As a software dev with a EE background I’m thirsty for such opportunities. Where does one look for these jobs?
av2297 4y ago
Could you explain the difference between the "semiconductor design" and "implementing the signal processing requirements" - not sure I followed the difference between these. The standard in question (e.g., HSPDA) defines the signal processing techniques a chip needs to be able perform. You must then design a chip that implements the standard's signal processing techniques. So those two phrases seem identical to me in this context? Of course, there is a segmentation between the RF Front End (often made by a separate manufacturer) and the digital baseband ASIC (which implements the DSP techniques specifically).
rasz 4y ago
>There is no way that a hacker in a spare room can acquire the required skills https://bellard.org/lte/ https://bellard.org/lte/
- KirillPanov 4y ago
  To be fair, you can't use Fabrice Bellard as a counterexample because he isn't human -- he is a time-traveling AI from the future endowed with alien superpowers. But, other than that, you pretty much stomped all over GP.

oldsklgdfth 4y ago

Both the RF engineering and DSP programming sound immensely interesting. As a software dev with a EE background I’m thirsty for such opportunities. Where does one look for these jobs?

av2297 4y ago

Could you explain the difference between the "semiconductor design" and "implementing the signal processing requirements" - not sure I followed the difference between these. The standard in question (e.g., HSPDA) defines the signal processing techniques a chip needs to be able perform. You must then design a chip that implements the standard's signal processing techniques. So those two phrases seem identical to me in this context? Of course, there is a segmentation between the RF Front End (often made by a separate manufacturer) and the digital baseband ASIC (which implements the DSP techniques specifically).

rasz 4y ago

>There is no way that a hacker in a spare room can acquire the required skills https://bellard.org/lte/ https://bellard.org/lte/

KirillPanov 4y ago
To be fair, you can't use Fabrice Bellard as a counterexample because he isn't human -- he is a time-traveling AI from the future endowed with alien superpowers. But, other than that, you pretty much stomped all over GP.