Qualcomm Develops IoT Modem Chips with Over 10 Years Battery Life

"IoT is a very promising field. Qualcomm will actively invest human and material resources in this area." Qualcomm Japan's CDMA technology marketing and business development director Mrs. Susumu Yoshiro introduced the Qualcomm entry into the military at the IT Forum (sponsored by the U.S. Embassy) of SEMICON Japan 2015 (Tokyo Amicorp International Exhibition Center) on December 17, 2015. Networking (IoT).

According to Xu Yong, Qualcomm is now promoting four major initiatives in the IoT field. The first is to develop IoT-compatible communication methods such as "LTE eMTC (enhanced Machine-Type Communications)" and promote its practical application. The second is the substrate for the UAV "Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight". The third is machine learning based on cognitive computing. The fourth is to support developers.

Among them, LTE eMTC is a communication method that attaches importance to the "power saving", "low price", and "high network coverage" that IoT requires. Previous LTE has attached great importance to speed and large capacity. Currently, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is advancing standardization work. "The goal is to use a 5Wh battery, and you can use it for 5 to 10 years without replacement." Qualcomm expects to implement the eMTC in 2017, including supporting the construction of base stations. After the eMTC is the use of mobile phone network IoT communication "NB-IoT (NarrowBand-IoT)". The goal of battery life is more than 10 years.

Qualcomm will launch a modem chip supporting "LTE Cat 1" in the first half of 2016 for users who can't wait for eMTC and NB-IoT to be practical (Qualcomm's English publication data). Cat 1 does not control the downlink communication speed to a maximum of 10 Mbit/s, the uplink communication speed to a maximum of 5 Mbit/s, and achieves a battery life of more than 10 years in a power-saving mode. Shi Yong said that "is intended for smart meters, asset tracking and wearable devices and other products."

Provides the core components of a drone with a single substrate

In the field of drones, Qualcomm announced in September 2015 that "Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight" integrated the core components of drones except motors and batteries on a single substrate. Snapdragon Flight is equipped with "Snapdragon 801", 2GB memory, GPS receiver, 4K camera for aerial photography, camera for self-positioning, flight controller, etc., which removed the modem from SoC for smartphones (smartphones) before the 1.5th to 2nd generations. .

According to Xu Yong, a commercial Chinese UAV is equipped with seven substrates, with a total substrate area of ​​189 cm2 and a price of around 100,000 yen. If Snapdragon Flight is used, the number of substrates can be reduced to one (total area 23.2cm2), and the price can be reduced to about 30,000 yen.

The Snapdragon 801 is equipped with 4 32-bit processor cores operating at more than 2 GHz and a graphics core operating at 400 MHz, "you can easily add as many applications later" (required). For example, if you install Qualcomm's self-developed application software "Navigator Flight Controller", you can estimate the distance of the camera based on the image change of the position confirmation camera to determine the current position of the drone. If it is a model equipped with a stereo camera, it can also measure the distance to the object.

Focus on supporting developers in the IoT space

Cognitive-computing-based machine learning was first used in smart phone security technology "Snapdragon Smart Protect" to predict external attacks to take countermeasures. "It will take time for IoT" (Yong).

In terms of supporting developers, Qualcomm will release two board products for IoT. One is a board that supports developers. Equipped with the MSM8016 with a modem removed from the SoC “MSM8916” for smartphones, a 13-megapixel camera, 1GB of memory, a MicroSD card slot, HDMI, voice output, and various other common interfaces. The OS supports IoT kernels for Android, Ubuntu, and Windows 10. The other is a board that can be directly embedded in the product, namely: "System on Module". Used in many products such as surveillance cameras and projectors.

With the listing of these boards, Qualcomm has also established a community that supports developers. Sue Yong said that "the high pass has always been the (mobile phone) closed world activity, so it is not good at transmitting information to the outside. But in the IoT field, in order to draw everyone's wisdom, in the future will focus on supporting developers." (Reporter: God is near Bo III)