Qualcomm Atheros announced two low power Wi-Fi chips aimed at the Internet of Things. The QCA401x and QCA4531 pack more memory and compute power for a sector that continues to grow in its diversity and demands, the company said.
Qualcomm President Derek Aberle said the smartphone SoC giant is well positioned for emerging IoT markets. “Companies only playing in Wi-Fi will find it very difficult to succeed in the Internet of Everything space, and companies playing in cellular only will also struggle,” he said.The QCA401x is designed for a single function end device such as a smart light bulb, and comes with an MCU and up to 800 Kbytes of on-chip memory. It can support 54 Mbits/second with 1x1 MIMO on 802.11n Wi-Fi.
The 4531 targets IoT hubs and can support up to 16 simultaneous device connections with 2x2 MIMO and 802.11n at 108 Mbits/s. Such data rates are unlikely in IoT end nodes, the company said.
“Our vision is we need to fundamentally transform the edge of the Internet in order for the space to really take off. You need to have many, many different kinds of connectivity but you need smarter devices at edge of network,” Aberle said.
To ease connections among connected devices, Qualcomm’s new chips come pre-integrated with the AllJoyn software framework. The AllJoyn software is now part of an open source project called the AllSeen Alliance run by the the Linux Foundation. It competes with an Intel-led effort called Open Interconnect Consortium also run by the Linux Foundation.
“I don’t want to say that hardware is commoditizing but the advances you have with any particular hardware is limited…Partnerships are really helping differentiate,” Qualcomm Marketing Director Jim Merrick told EE Times.
Unlike Broadcom's Wiced developer platform and Samsung's recently announced Artik products, Qualcomm chips are not sold as part of a module. The San Diego-based company will instead partner with OEMs and module makers.
“We’re having significant traction already, and we feel some of the competitors are playing catch up in some respects,” Molly Mulloy, Qualcomm marketing director, told EE Times.
Qualcomm’s QCA401x and QCA4531 SoCs are currently sampling and expected to be in mass production by the end of the year.