Qualcomm Unveils Third-gen 5G Modem
Janet Denzel
The San Diego company's new processor and radio frequency antenna platform give mobile operators the ability to combine fragmented airwave spectrum to expand coverage, boost capacity and deliver faster speeds.
"Qualcomm's third-generation X60 5G modem-RF system is a big step forward for 5G," said Geoff Blader, an analyst with technology research firm CCS Insights. "Spectrum aggregation across all millimeter wave and sub-6 gigahertz bands will deliver a big performance gain. This took years to get to in LTE."
5G, or fifth-generation wireless technology, ultimately wants to provide fiber-optic like download speeds with very low transmission lag times to mobile devices. Qualcomm's latest chip supports peak download speeds of 7.5 gigabits per second.
In addition, these new networks have been designed to connect a lot more than smartphones. Cars, smart cities infrastructure, automated factories and myriad Internet of Things devices are also are expected to get wireless Internet connectivity via 5G.
"As 5G standalone networks are introduced in 2020, our third-generation 5G modem-RF platform brings extensive spectrum aggregation capabilities and options to fuel the rapid expansion of 5G rollouts," said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon, "while enhancing coverage, power efficiency and performance for mobile devices."
There are different flavors of 5G. High-frequency millimeter wave, which Verizon is betting on, is capable of very fast speeds. But millimeter-wave signals don't travel very far and can't penetrate buildings. They require the installation of additional small cell antennas. So millimeter wave is mostly targeted toward downtowns and other dense urban neighborhoods.
Mid-band frequencies aren't as fast. But these airwaves do travel farther and can penetrate buildings. They are expected to serve suburban areas. By supporting spectrum band aggregation, Qualcomm says its new chip-RF antenna system will allow mobile operators to double peak speeds on mid-band frequencies.
Qualcomm is among the global leaders in 5G technologies. The company is counting on 5G to jump-start smartphone sales, which have been stagnant for at least two years as performance and features plateaued, hurting the company's revenue.
Qualcomm has announced its third generation 5G modem. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 5G modem-RF system is a discrete component that allows device makers to add state of the art 5G support. The key attraction of the Snapdragon X60 is that it facilitates "fibre-like internet speeds and low latency," according to Qualcomm. Furthermore, as per our sub-headline, the X60 includes the world's first baseband component built on the 5nm process.
The new Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 5G modem-RF system is targeted at premium smartphones, as well as commercial and industrial devices which would benefit from a 5G connection. This third gen part looks like it goers all-in on support for all key 5G bands and combinations, including spectrum aggregation - in order to deliver the best 5G connectivity even with fragmented spectrum assets. In other words it should improve end user 5G experiences on many mobile networks worldwide. Moreover it supports 5G Voice-over-NR (VoNR) capabilities.
Another notable improvement delivered by the Snapdragon X60 is the new Qualcomm QTM535 mmWave antenna module. As well as offering "superior mmWave performance," Qualcomm says it is the most compact antenna module yet, allowing for thinner, sleeker smartphones.'
"As 5G stand-alone networks are introduced in 2020, our third-generation 5G modem-RF platform brings extensive spectrum aggregation capabilities and options to fuel the rapid expansion of 5G rollouts while enhancing coverage, power efficiency and performance for mobile devices," said Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm Inc.
Considering the Snapdragon X60's touted performance, it is said to be capable of "up to 7.5 gigabits per second (Gbps) download speeds and 3Gbps upload speeds." With carrier aggregation the peak 5G data rates can be doubled compared to solutions without this facility.
The new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is said to be on par with the original third-generation Snapdragon 8 (seen on the latest premium phones-- Xiaomi 14, iQOO 12 and OnePlus 12) in several aspects, such as running Artificial Intelligence-powered Large Language Models (LLMs), graphics-rich games, and photography capabilities.
It has the same Graphic Processor Unit (GPU) and 5G modem as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but the new Snapdragon processor has one less performance core. And, it can clock a peak CPU speed of 3.0Ghz against 3.5GHz on 8 Gen 3.
[Note: The number of parameters in a large language model usually dictates its size and complexity. The more the number of parameters, the faster an LLM is capable of understanding complex tasks and delivering them. For context, ChatGPT 4 supports 1.76 trillion parameters and devices need cloud server connectivity to perform complex tasks.]
3) Devices with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 support hardware-accelerated ray tracing. It will enable the device to deliver a hyper-realistic mobile gaming experience with true-to-life scenes sporting more accurate shadows and reflections, allowing for deeply immersive content.
Xiaomi is one company that plans to use the Snapdragon 720G, which is geared for gaming phones. The processor is similar to Qualcomm's 765G, which gives gaming phones integrated 5G connectivity. Other handset makers in India, like Realme, also have said they'll use Qualcomm's new 4G processors this year.
"Obviously we've been playing a very big role ... [in] enabling 5G in the market," Kedar Kondap, Qualcomm vice president of product management, said in a call with reporters ahead of the news. "But there continues to be a pretty strong user base of 4G users all over the globe. "
5G is touted as a game-changing technology, with the ability to dramatically boost the speed and coverage of wireless networks. It can run between 10 and 100 times faster than your typical 4G cellular connection today. The move from 4G to 5G is different from past network upgrades. 5G isn't replacing 4G, like how 4G overtook 3G. Instead, 5G is building on 4G LTE, using updated radios and software.
While 5G could become mainstream in places like the US as soon as this year, it could take much longer to spread across developing markets or even rural areas. At the same time carriers are updating their 5G networks, they're also increasing the speeds of their 4G networks. And even in places with widespread 5G coverage, phones will need to fall back on 4G networks. That means 4G is going to stick around for a long time.
Qualcomm's new chips are largely geared at places like India, where 5G likely will take longer to catch on. But they also could be popular in some segments of the US market, Kondap said. Right now, Qualcomm's 5G chips are geared at high-end phones and some slightly less expensive devices.
"For the tier below, there's still a material 4G user base even in the US and mature markets," Kondap said. "We do expect for us to be able to bring some of these [processors] to other regions outside of obviously India, Southeast Asia or Latin America."
While Qualcomm's highest-end chips power devices like Samsung's flagship phones, the company's 7-series chips and below have become popular with handset markets. Motorola and TCL are a couple companies that often tap into the 7-series for their new devices. Qualcomm said that more than 85 devices have used its Snapdragon 7-series, more than 1,600 have used its 6-series and over 2,500 have tapped the 4-series.
The company's Snapdragon 720G provides smooth HDR game play and realistic graphics. It also lets users shoot 4G video or 192-megapixel photos and has Qualcomm's newest, fifth-generation AI engine that's also found in its higher-end processors. The technology "will enable a host of new AI experiences for gaming, photography, voice assistants and virtually always-on contextual awareness," the company said.
The Snapdragon 662 supports triple camera configurations, a first for the company's 6-series chips. It will also have Qualcomm's third-generation AI engine to let phone makers add things like avatars, night photography and face and voice authentication to cheaper phones. The processor comes integrated with the new X11 LTE modem that can download data at up to 390 Mbps.
And the Snapdragon 460, aimed at cheap phones, gets a big boost in performance and connectivity speeds. The new CPU is 70% faster than the chip's predecessor, the Snapdragon 450, while the GPU is 60% faster. Overall the system's performance is double that of the older chip. Like the Snapdragon 662, the Snapdragon 460 also includes the third-generation AI engine and an integrated X11 modem.
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon X60 modem for flagship 5G phones. The news comes almost exactly a year after the announcement of its predecessor, the Snapdragon X55 modem. The Snapdragon X60 is the third-generation 5G modem-RF system from Qualcomm, succeeding the Snapdragon X55, which in turn succeeded the first-generation Snapdragon X50. The company has also announced the new ultraSAW RF filter technology. Let's take a look at both of these announcements one-by-one:
The Snapdragon X60 features the world's first 5nm baseband. (Qualcomm didn't state who will be manufacturing the X60, but given TSMC's leadership in the 5nm process, it's likely to be manufactured on TSMC's 5nm FinFET process.) The 5nm process will lead to power efficiency gains in a smaller footprint.
Update: Sources speaking to Reuters report that Samsung has won a contract to manufacture the new 5nm modem. The Reuters report states that Samsung will only be producing a portion of Snapdragon X60 modem chips and TSMC will also be involved in the manufacturing. It's unclear which company will manufacture the first batch of chips, however.
The Snapdragon X60 is also the world's first 5G modem-RF system to support spectrum aggregation across all key 5G bands and combinations, including millimeter wave (mmWave) and sub-6 (sub-6GHz 5G) using frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD).
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