Apparatus and methods for sample selection and reuse of rake fingers in spread spectrum systems

1. An apparatus for processing data in a spread spectrum system, comprising:

a decimation circuit having an associated decimation factor;

a memory, which is a single port RAM, coupled to said decimation circuit, wherein said memory is divided into memory blocks such that during processing a first subset of memory blocks is in a Read mode and a second subset of memory blocks is in a Write mode; and

an interpolation circuit coupled to said memory, said interpolation circuit having an associated interpolation factor;

wherein said decimation circuit decimates a data rate of received data by said decimation factor to a decimated rate and stores said received data into said memory at said decimated rate; and

wherein said interpolation circuit interpolates said decimated rate by said interpolation factor to an interpolated rate and retrieves said received data from said memory at said interpolated rate.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of despreaders.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein each of said plurality of despreaders includes:

a selector circuit; and

a rake finger.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein each of said memory blocks are divided into segments such that data stored in each segment is read out sequentially onto a bussing element accessible by multiple rake fingers via selector circuits in said plurality of despreaders.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein said selector circuit includes a block multiplexer, a plurality of sample multiplexers, and a cache coupled to each rake finger.

6. An apparatus for processing data in a spread spectrum system, comprising:

a decimation circuit having an associated decimation factor;

a memory, which is a circular buffer including multiple registers, coupled to said decimation circuit;

an interpolation circuit coupled to said memory, said interpolation circuit having an associated interpolation factor; and

a plurality of despreaders, wherein each of said plurality of despreaders includes:

a selector circuit; and

a rake finger;

wherein said decimation circuit decimates a data rate of received data by said decimation factor to a decimated rate and stores said received data into said memory at said decimated rate;

wherein said interpolation circuit interpolates said decimated rate by said interpolation factor to an interpolated rate and retrieves said received data from said memory at said interpolated rate; and

wherein said selector circuit includes a first set of multiplexers for selecting in-phase data, a second set of multiplexers for selecting quadrature data, and multiple sample select lines coupled to each rake finger.

7. An apparatus for processing data, comprising:

a plurality of rake fingers;

a memory for storing data at the input to said plurality of rake fingers; and

a selector circuit positioned between said memory and each of said plurality of rake fingers;

wherein said plurality of rake fingers can access said memory substantially simultaneously via a respective selector circuit, and

wherein said selector circuit includes a first plurality of multiplexers for selecting in-phase data from said memory, a second plurality of multiplexers for selecting quadrature data from said memory, and a set of select lines for controlling data being selected by said first plurality of multiplexers and said second plurality of multiplexers.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein said memory is a circular buffer including a plurality of registers.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein said memory is a single-port RAM.

10. An apparatus for processing data, comprising:

a plurality of rake fingers;

a memory, which is a single-port RAM, for storing data at the input to said plurality of rake fingers; and

a selector circuit positioned between said memory and each of said plurality of rake fingers;

wherein said plurality of rake fingers can access said memory substantially simultaneously via a respective selector circuit; and

wherein said memory is divided into memory blocks such that, during each processing cycle, a first subset of said memory blocks is in a Read mode and a second subset of said memory blocks is in a Write mode.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein each of said memory blocks is divided into segments, such that data stored in each segment is read out sequentially onto a bussing element.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said selector circuit includes a block multiplexer, a plurality of sample multiplexers, and a cache coupled to each rake finger.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein said block multiplexer selects a bussing element to receive data from a segment.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein said sample multiplexers selects data received from said block multiplexer and stores said data into said cache.

15. An apparatus for processing data in spread spectrum systems, comprising:

a memory coupled to a set of despreaders via a bus;

each of said set of despreaders including:

a block multiplexer coupled to said bus;

a set of sample multiplexers coupled to said block multiplexer;

a cache coupled to said sample multiplexers; and

a rake finger coupled to said cache; and

wherein said set of despreaders can access samples stored in said memory substantially simultaneously via said bus.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein said memory is divided into blocks such that during a processing cycle by a despreader, a first subset of said blocks is in a Read mode and a second subset of said blocks is in a Write mode.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein said blocks are divided into segments such that samples stored in each of said segments are read out sequentially onto a bussing element coupled to said bus.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein said block multiplexer in each of said despreaders selects samples from one bussing element.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein said sample multiplexers in each of said despreaders select appropriate Early, On-Time, and Late samples among samples received from said block multiplexer to be stored into said cache.