Qualcomm Inc. announced on Monday that its subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies has secured over 100 design wins across more than 60 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and module OEMs based on its MDM9x07 chipset family comprised of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X5 LTE (9×07) modem and MDM9207-1 modem for the Internet of Things (IoT).
The flexible chipset family offers security-focused and optimized cellular connectivity, as well as edge processing for a large array of devices and systems within the IoT. These modems are designed to address customer connectivity and power challenges in a range of use cases including in smart cities, commercial applications and industrial designs. These uses include smart energy and metering, building security, infrastructure, industrial control and automation, retail point of sale, asset tracking, medical, lighting and aftermarket telematics.
Qualcomm Technologies is also continuing to expand the capabilities of LTE to accelerate progress in IoT, including driving the new LTE IoT technologies with Release 13 of the 3GPP standard towards commercialization, as well as the evolution of the cellular ecosystem towards 5G which will bring even more opportunities for the IoT.
The MDM9206 modem, featuring a purpose-built IoT design and offering even lower power consumption and longer range supports LTE eMTC (Category M1) and NB-IoT (Category NB-1) modes.
Commercial IoT devices based on the Snapdragon X5 (9×07) and MDM9207-1 LTE modems are available with others expected to continue shipping. Module OEMs are expected to launch MDM9206-based Cat M1 capable modules by early next year. A software upgrade for Cat NB-1 is expected to be available shortly thereafter.
The Snapdragon X5 LTE modem (9×07) with All Mode capability, supports LTE Category 4 download speeds up to 150 Mbps. The MDM9207-1 modem offers LTE Category 1 support for up to 10 Mbps on the downlink, power save mode (PSM) and up to 10 years of battery life from two AA batteries. These modems are designed to be compatible with cellular standards across the globe, and include Linux OS support, ARM Cortex A7 processor, pre-integrated support for Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO technology, Bluetooth 4.2, Bluetooth Low Energy, and integrated GNSS.
Engineered to offer design simplicity, this chipset supports scalable software reuse across the chipset platform in order to reduce design complexity, ease development costs and enable faster time to commercialization.
The rapid growth of the IoT is driving a massive new ecosystem of smart, cellular connected machines and things, and with that a wide range of connectivity requirements. Qualcomm Technologies is helping to evolve LTE to deliver a unified, scalable IoT platform.
Beyond wide-area coverage, cellular networks deliver numerous benefits to IoT applications including ubiquitous coverage, scalability to address the wide range of IoT use cases, managed and predictable quality of service, high reliability, robust end-to-end security, seamless interoperability backed by global standards and coexistence with deployed and planned LTE infrastructure.
“Our LTE modems for IoT allow us to bring customers the power and flexibility of the same modem core technology already launched in hundreds of millions of devices globally so that they can address a broad range of commercial and industrial applications where wide area cellular connectivity adds a tremendous benefit,” said Serge Willenegger, senior vice president, product management of Qualcomm Technologies. “Our momentum demonstrates the widespread acceptance of our LTE IoT solutions in many fast growing IoT areas, as we help make industries around the world more connected, efficient and sustainable than ever before.”
