Qualcomm is Bringing 5G to PCs, Cars, and Homes Too
- Paul Thurrott
- Feb 25, 2019
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As it did previously with microprocessors, Qualcomm is expanding its lineup of 5G modems to target specific markets beyond smartphones.
Its moves in the PC market are perhaps the most interesting.
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“Our platforms were the first to bring gigabit, and now multi-gigabit LTE to the PC,” Qualcom senior vice president Alex Katouzian says. “We also brought multi-day battery life to the PC, and with the Snapdragon 8cx 5G compute platform, we innovate once again to bring the best of our computing and connectivity technologies into a single platform to modernize the enterprise.”
Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8cx last fall, and it expects to see partner PCs based on the chipset in the market by the second half of 2019. This week’s announcement about the platform’s 5G capabilities is new, however: PCs based on the Snapdragon 8cx will be able to take advantage of the newly-announced Snapdragon X55 5G modem, which promises download speeds of up to 7 Gbps.
Those PCs will also take advantage of the other inherent advantages of Qualcomm’s compute platform, which delivers over 20 hours of battery life, weeks of standby, and quiet, fanless operation. Qualcomm expects to see PCs based on this design in the market in the second half of 2019 as well.
Beyond the PC, Qualcomm also announced 5G parts for wireless home base stations, which would be sold by carriers like Verizon, and for cars. Automakers are expected to add 5G capabilities to select vehicles as soon as this coming model year, Qualcomm says.
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Conversation 6 comments
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proesterchen
<p>Qualcomm only exists on the back of their wireless communications patents that have been fruitfully injected into international standards to provide leverage for the rest of their terrible product portfolio.</p>
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dontbe evil
<blockquote><em><a href="#407023">In reply to proesterchen:</a></em></blockquote><p>in perfect apple style</p>
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wocowboy
Premium Member<p>"Gigabit, and now multi-gigabit LTE" exists? Where? I certainly have never witnessed that sort of service, or anything even remotely close to it, and I have been in large cities, rural areas, small towns, and now see an "LTE+" icon in my phone's menu bar pretty much constantly now, that I would assume indicates that the carrier might be using some sort of LTE-Advanced technology on the site I am connected to, but when I run a Speedtest, all I get is the normal 14-20 Mbps data rate I have seen for years. Yes, that data rate is quite adequate for YouTube streaming and 99% of things I want to do with my cellphone, but the question still remains, why haven't the carriers been putting out gigabit if LTE is perfectly able to do it? And if they aren't, should we really expect much better in 5-10 years when 5G is finally widely deployed around the country?</p>
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dontbe evil
<p>apple is bringing 5g … nowhere</p>