At MWC 2022, Qualcomm just announced its next-generation 5G modem, the Qualcomm X70 5G, the successor of the X65 launched last year.
The new X70 5G modem has the same peak speed of 10Gbps as the X65, but Qualcomm has worked to improve the average speed, a much more important metric in the real world.
Qualcomm says that mmWave connectivity is now more robust. mmWave ideally requires a direct line of sight with the 5G base station, but the signal can also be picked up as it bounces on buildings. However, it degrades over time.
There are opportunities through software to improve the interpreted signal and to reduce the error rate.
To help with this endeavor, Qualcomm has included an AI processor inside the modem. That’s a brilliant way to do it because signal processing has “perceptive computing” characteristics that AI is extremely good at.
AI can be utilized to recognize specific radio-wave patterns and “repair” the signal, just like we can use AI to de-noise images, to use a typical example.
It looks like Qualcomm has successfully integrated this technology, and you can expect it to evolve further as more data gets accumulated. It’s not clear if the neural network can be updated over the air (OTA), but if it was, this could lead to continuous improvements.
We’ll have to wait for the second half of this year to see consumer devices equipped with this new modem, and hopefully, the Sept/Oct months will be rich in announcements. (X70 official page)
Filed in . Read more about 5G, Modem, MWC, Mwc 2022 and Qualcomm.
