At the Embedded World Exhibition & Conference in Nuremberg last week, Qualcomm Technologies showcased its significant presence in the embedded and IoT ecosystem and positioned itself at the center of digital transformation by continually accelerating innovation across industries. More than 35 companies - spanning from embedded design centers, distributors, and independent software vendors - showcased solutions powered by Qualcomm processors across segments such as robotics, manufacturing, asset and fleet management, edge AI boxes, automotive solutions, and more.
At Embedded World, Qualcomm Technologies unveiled additions to its portfolio of products and solutions designed to empower its customers in the embedded ecosystem. The new Qualcomm QCC730 Wi-Fi solution and Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform provide critical upgrades to enable on-device AI, high-performance, low-power processing, and connectivity for the latest IoT products and applications.
Qualcomm QCC730 Wi-Fi
Qualcomm Technologies also unveiled the Qualcomm QCC730, a disruptive micro-power Wi-Fi system for IoT connectivity. This technological breakthrough provides up to 88% lower power than previous generations and can revolutionize products in battery-powered industrial, commercial and consumer applications. QCC730 was complemented with an open-source IDE and SDK that supports cloud connectivity offloading for ease of development. Its versatility even empowers developers to implement QCC730 as a high-performance alternative to Bluetooth IoT applications for flexible design and direct cloud connectivity. Qualcomm Technologies also offers a family of IoT connectivity products including QCC711, a tri-core ultra-low power Bluetooth Low Energy SoC and QCC740, an all-in-one solution supporting Thread, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
“Complementing high-performance, low-latency wireless connectivity solutions, Qualcomm QCC730 SoC is an industry-leading micro-powered Wi-Fi solution enabling Wi-Fi for the world of battery-powered IoT platforms. QCC730 enables devices to support TCP/IP networking capabilities while remaining form-factor and completely wireless constrained, whilst remaining connected to the Cloud platforms,” said Rahul Patel, group general manager, connectivity, broadband and networking (CBN), Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Along with the rest of our IoT connectivity portfolio, this new offering places Qualcomm Technologies at the center of next-generation battery-powered smart-home, healthcare, gaming and other consumer electronic devices, and reflects on our commitment to utilize our decades of R&D to pioneer new user consumer experiences.”
Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform
The new Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform is a comprehensive hardware and software solution designed for IoT and embedded applications. Utilizing the Qualcomm QCS6490 processor, the RB3 Gen 2 offers a combination of high-performance processing, a 10x increase in on-device AI processing, support for quadruple 8MP+ camera sensors, computer vision, and integrated Wi-Fi 6E. RB3 Gen 2 is expected to be used in a wide range of products, including various types of robots, drones, industrial handheld devices, industrial and connected cameras, AI edge boxes, intelligent displays, and more. This platform is now available for pre-order in two integrated development kits and supports downloadable software updates to simplify application development, integration, and build proof-of-concepts and prototypes.
The RB3 Gen 2 is also supported in the recently announced Qualcomm AI Hub, which contains a library of continuously refreshed pre-optimized AI models for superior on-device AI performance, lower memory utilization, and power-optimized operation. This allows for an out-of-the-box optimized experience across a variety of broadly used AI models deployed across IoT and embedded applications. Developers can view a selection of models for RB3 Gen 2 and integrate the optimized AI models into their applications, reducing time-to-market and unlocking the benefits of on-device AI implementations such as immediacy, reliability, privacy, personalization, and cost savings.
RB3 Gen 2 features support for Qualcomm Linux - a comprehensive package of OS, software, tools, and documentation precisely designed for Qualcomm Technologies' IoT platforms. It offers a unified Linux distribution that caters to multiple SoCs, starting with the QCS6490 processor, featuring essential components like the Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel, to enable a consistent and superior developer experience. The Qualcomm Linux software stack extends support to all processor cores, subsystems, and components within the platform. Qualcomm Linux is currently available for private preview with select collaborators and is planned for wider availability to developers in the coming months.
To expand their open-source expertise and speed product commercialization with Qualcomm Linux, Qualcomm Technologies recently acquired Foundries.io, a provider of an open-source cloud-native platform that abstracts the complexities of developing and updating Linux-based IoT and Edge devices.
Industrial Readiness
Expanding on its broad portfolio of IoT solutions, Qualcomm Technologies introduced an industrial-grade platform that focuses on addressing the functional safety, and environmental and mechanical handling requirements in industrial applications. This platform supports System Integrity Level certification, vast operating temperature ranges, and industrial module packaging to address the deployment requirements in enterprise and industrial environments. This solution is expected to be available in June 2024 and will feature high-performance CPU, GPU, and on-device AI capabilities, advanced safe camera ISP with multi-concurrent camera support, and support for industrial I/O needs.
“Coming soon, we will be expanding our portfolio of IoT products to address high-performance, industrial-grade solutions that will bring a new era of intelligence, functional safety, and robust high-performance compute and I/O capabilities to the most demanding industrial applications,” said Jeff Torrance, senior vice president and general manager, industrial and embedded IoT, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
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