Qualcomm drops ‘world’s first’ modem for 5G Advanced

Chip firm Qualcomm has launched the Snapdragon X75, which it says is the world’s first 5G Advanced-ready modem-RF system.

The Snapdragon X75 5G modem-RF system has new architecture, a new software suite and includes features to provide better coverage, latency, power efficiency and mobility compared to previous versions, we are told.

It comes with a dedicated hardware tensor accelerator, Qualcomm 5G AI Processor Gen 2 (which apparently enabled over 2.5 times better AI performance compared to Gen 1) and Qualcomm 5G AI Suite Gen 2 which carries AI-powered optimisations which will apparently provide better speeds, coverage, mobility, link robustness and location accuracy.

In other tech specs, it has 10-carrier aggregation for mmWave, 5x downlink carrier aggregation, FDD uplink MIMO for sub-6 GHz bands, an AI-based sensor-assisted mmWave beam management, and more besides.

It has also today announced the Snapdragon X72 5G Modem-RF System – which it describes as a 5G modem-to-antenna solution optimized for mainstream adoption of mobile broadband applications. So eager was Qualcomm to announce this tech that it has done so a week and a half before MWC as opposed to at the show itself.

“5G Advanced will take connectivity to a whole new level, fuelling the new reality of the Connected Intelligent Edge,” said Durga Malladi, senior vice president and general manager, cellular modems and infrastructure, Qualcomm Technologies. “Snapdragon X75 Modem-RF System demonstrates the full breadth of our global 5G leadership, with innovations such as hardware accelerated AI and the support for upcoming 5G Advanced capabilities, which unlock a whole new level of 5G performance and a new phase in cellular communications.”

The main takeaway seems to be that infusing the X75 with AI brings benefits in terms of helping the phone to connect to networks, and that it is supposed to support the application of 5G Advanced – which it describes as the ‘next stage of 5G evolution in all key verticals including vehicles, PCs, Industrial IoT.’

Commercial devices containing the X75 are expected to launch by the second half of 2023, but of course the supporting network infrastructure will have to be rolled out first for it to be make use of it.

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