Qualcomm adds LTE to Gobi roadmap

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Qualcomm adds LTE to Gobi roadmap

Embedded devices will also be a key expansion area for the modules as it takes on rival Ericsson Mobile Platforms

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 25 March, 2010

READ MORE: Qualcomm | Semiconductor | LTE

Qualcomm may have found its Snapdragon processor in a WiMAX phone, but its other high profile product, the Gobi modem, is firmly fixed on LTE. The San Diego firm will add LTE in the next generation and is also looking, like rival Ericsson Mobile Platforms, to push its embedded module into a wider range of devices, looking beyond the laptop.

Gobi's important differentiator is that it supports both the HSPA and EV-DO 3G technologies, allowing notebook users to switch seamlessly between carriers even when they have different networks (subject to contract terms or roaming deals). There is no need to swap modems in and out.

Mike Concannon, senior VP of connectivity and wireless modules at Qualcomm, said the addition of LTE would give PC makers greater flexibility to segment their product ranges, with LTE at the high end and basic 3.6Mbps HSPA at the budget end. The PC customers, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell, will now also have a common API to use across the modems, so that connection management interfaces and other features are unified.

The chipsets that support the Gobi API, and can be included in Gobi modules, are the:

• MDM6200 entry level for HSPA+ up to 14.4Mbps

• MDM6600, which supports HSPA up to 14.4Mbps plus EV-DO Revs A and B

• MDM8200A for HSPA+ up to 28Mbps

• MDM8220 for dual-carrier HSPA+ up to 42Mbps

• The forthcoming MDM9200 for LTE, backwards compatible with dual-carrier HSPA+ only

• MDM9600, for LTE that is backwards compatible with HSPA+ and also EV-DO Revs A and B.

The last of these could be important to Verizon Wireless, which will want to have a range of devices able to access its LTE networks from day one, late this year.

Qualcomm says it now has 100 notebooks sporting Gobi, with customers including most of the PC big names - notably Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic and Sony. But it will also look to other devices, as wireless becomes embedded in an ever wider range of products. Here it will increasingly run up against Ericsson's module unit, Mobile Platforms, which uses ST-Ericsson silicon and has also moved beyond laptops into e-readers, home wireless gateways and other gadgets. Ericsson is also talking about getting back into smartphones indirectly, by offering modules to white label or low cost phonemakers - a sector that is less likely to appeal to Qualcomm, whose core business is selling silicon straight into phones. However, at the low end, it will increasingly need to offer 'out of the box' options such as reference designs, for customers without the resources to develop handsets from scratch.

Qualcomm said it is now "prepared to serve the needs of additional market segments, including USB modems, e-readers, gaming devices and M2M commercial applications".