LTE, 5G & 3GPP IoT Chipset Report: March 2020
Chipset Table updated March 2020
5G silicon status
There is an increasing choice of chipsets for 5G devices, with products commercially available from Hi-Silicon (Huawei), Mediatek, Qualcomm, and Samsung.
Hi-Silicon (Huawei) has launched its first generation 5G-only Balong 5G01 cellular modem and, more recently, its second generation LTE/5G Balong 5000 cellular modem. A 5G version of its Kirin processor, the Kirin 990, has also been launched.
Mediatek has launched the Dimensity 1000L 5G system on a chip. Variants of this (the Dimensity 800 and the Dimensity 1000) are expected during 2020. Mediatek has also announced the standalone Helio M70 modem (understood to be pre-commercial at the time of writing).
Qualcomm has launched the Snapdragon 765, 765G, 855, 855+ and 865 mobile platforms. Its Snapdragon X50 and x55 modems are both commercially available, as is the 8cx 5G platform for laptops. Snapdragon 6 series chips are expected during 2020.
Samsung has launched its Exynos 5100 (S5T5100) modem and the Exynos 980 mobile processor. It has additionally announced the Exynos 5123 modem, samples of which are expected to be available in Q1 2020.
In addition to those vendors with commercially available 5G chipsets, UNISOC (formerly Spreadtrum) has announced its IVY510 5G modem chipset (also called IVYO510 in some literature) and its Makalu platform. In November, it announced that the modem had completed testing in China and that its chipsets would be appearing in mobile devices from Verve Connect (under the IMO brand) in Europe during 2020. Meanwhile U-Blox has announced a 5G-upgradeable chipset. Its UBX-R5 IoT chipset will be ultimately capable of supporting 5G, but it will need an OTA software upgrade to do this.
Intel meanwhile has announced its withdrawal from the smartphone LTE and 5G modem market. Its previously announced XMM8060 and XMM8160 5G modems will not now be produced. In 2019 Apple agreed to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business. Apple does not typically make its chipsets available to third parties. We have removed the Intel chipsets (LTE and 5G) from our analysis (leading to declines in some of the counts).
The arrival of new commercially available modems and chipsets has led to a small increase in download speeds, with top-end chipsets now capable of delivering 7–7.5 Gbps DL and 3.5 Gbps UL. The new chipsets also introduce new midrange chipset options.
©GSA 2020
LTE, 5G & 3GPP IoT Chipset Report: February 2020
