Qualcomm launches Vision chips to power IoT hardware

Qualcomm doesn't want to stick to manufacturing smartphone chips, it seems. It's not only the mobile devices that require high processing performance along with good battery life. With the Internet of Things (IoT) cementing its position in the future, Qualcomm has plans for smart home gear too.

The company has unveiled its Vision Intelligence Platform that feature's Qualcomm's first SoC exclusively built for the IoT hardware. The new QCS605 and QCS603 chipsets are built using the 10nm process and are designed to run on things like security systems, autonomous vehicles, robots, and action cameras. The company seems focused on making the chipsets powerful and equipped with features that relate to machine learning and AI while being power efficient at the same time.

The Qualcomm Vision Intelligence Platform comes with support for features seen on top-end smartphones such as 4K video recording at 60fps, support for major graphics APIs, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and can also integrate with virtual assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

However, the QCS605 and QCS603 support things like obstacle avoidance, which would come in handy for applications like robot vacuums and self0driving vehicles.

Qualcomm's aim is to attract companies into using its chipset for their smart hardware beyond smartphones. Since Qualcomm is the fourth biggest company across the globe in terms of manufacturing semiconductor, there's plenty of fields for the company to grow outside the smartphone business.

With Huawei making considerable advancements in the chip-making business, the fight for dominance in the niche IoT market will only get fiercer.

Previously, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem. It is world's first announced category 20 LTE modem which supports up to 2GBps (Gigabytes per second) and is the first announced chip built on 7 Nanometer FinFET process. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE modem is the company's eighth-generation LTE multimode modem and third generation Gigabit LTE solution. The chipset includes advanced cellular features compared to any commercially available 4G LTE modem to date.

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This strengthens the LTE foundation for future 5G multimode devices and networks. Qualcomm has further confirmed that the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem would be demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) tech show along with the Ericsson, Telstra, and Netgear. As per Qualcomm, the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem provides a speed which is double than the company's first Generation Gigabit LTE modem.