Chip (CDMA)

In digital communications, a chip is a pulse of a direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) code, such as a pseudo-random noise (PN) code sequence used in direct-sequence code-division multiple access (CDMA) channel access techniques.

In a binary direct-sequence system, each chip is typically a rectangular pulse of +1 or −1 amplitude, which is multiplied by a data sequence (similarly +1 or −1 representing the message bits) and by a carrier waveform to make the transmitted signal.

The chips are therefore just the bit sequence out of the code generator; they are called chips to avoid confusing them with message bits.

The ratio is known as the spreading factor (SF) or processing gain: Orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) is an implementation of code-division multiple access (CDMA) where before each signal is transmitted, the signal is spread over a wide spectrum range through the use of a user's code.

Users' codes are carefully chosen to be mutually orthogonal to each other.