LTE, 5G and 3GPP IoT Chipsets: Status Update April 2019

4 commercial 5G modem chipsets and 1 commercial processor/platform; more to follow soon

Since our last report at the end of 2018, there has been further activity in the 5G chipset arena.

Hi-Silicon (Huawei) announced 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 expected by industry commentators, though no official announcement has been made as far as GSA is aware.

• Intel has announced the XMM8060 and XMM8160 cellular modems.
• Mediatek has announced the Helio M70 modem.
• Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 855 mobile platform and the Snapdragon X50 and X55 modems.
• Samsung has announced its Exynos 5100 (S5T5100) modem.
• 23 discrete cellular modem chipsets supporting LTE (excluding 5G-capable silicon)
• 133 mobile platforms or processors supporting LTE (including 1 that also supports 5G)
• 29 modem or platform chipsets supporting 3GPP IoT technologies

In terms of downlink speeds, the fastest current LTE modem chipsets are:

• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X20 and X24 modems (DL category 18 and 20 respectively; 1.2 Gbit/s and 2 Gbit/s respectively with 5 and 7 carrier aggregation respectively and 256QAM on the downlink).
• Intel’s XMM 7560 and 7660 modems (DL category 16 and 19 respectively; 1 Gbit/s and 1.6 Gbit/s respectively, again with 5 and 7 carrier aggregation respectively, with 256QAM modulation on the downlink).
• Hi-Silicon’s Balong 765 (DL category 19; 1.6 Gbit/s, with four-channel carrier aggregation, 256QAM DL modulation and 8×8 MIMO on the DL, which is an industry first).

Other modems are also powering fast mobile platforms such as the Samsung Exynos 9 Series (9810 and 9820) and Hi-Silicon’s Kirin 970 and 980 which support downlink speeds in excess of 1.2 Gbps, and in the case of the Exynos 9820, 2 Gbps.

©2019 GSA