Qualcomm brings 60GHz Wi-Fi chipsets family

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has announced a family of 60GHz Wi-Fi chipsets, the QCA64x8 and QCA64x1, delivering 10+ gigabit-per-second (Gbps) network speeds and wire equivalent latency, while setting the industry low-power benchmark for extended device battery life. As a new connectivity era dawns, reliance on high-bandwidth mmWave spectrum will increase, bringing powerful new wireless experiences like ultra-high-definition video streaming, Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR), mobile screen casting and fixed wireless mesh backhaul. Qualcomm Technologies’ 60GHz Wi-Fi portfolio has the flexibility to meet those challenging demands while harnessing unique capabilities that support new 60GHz Wi-Fi Sensing applications like proximity and presence detection, gesture recognitions, room mapping with precise location and improved facial feature detection. Qualcomm Technologies is the first-to market with a 60GHz Wi-Fi solution with optimizations based on the 802.11ay specification, enabling best-in-class 60GHz Wi-Fi speeds and unmatched coverage performance.

“mmWave holds enormous potential to support a new class of user experiences, and Qualcomm Technologies is leading the charge with both its Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G NR modem family and unlicensed 60GHz Wi-Fi mmWave solution,” said Rahul Patel, Senior Vice-President & General Manager, Connectivity and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Our 11ay solutions were developed with the flexibility to support a broad ecosystem of smartphone, router or fixed wireless access platforms and provides the industry with the critical building blocks needed to take connectivity performance to the next level.”

Qualcomm Technologies’ industry-first family of 11ay 60GHz Wi-Fi chipsets includes QCA6438 and QCA6428 for infrastructure and fixed wireless access, and the QCA6421 and QCA6431 for mobile applications. Earlier this year, Qualcomm Technologies, and Facebook announced they are working together to deliver high-speed internet connectivity with Facebook’s Terragraph technology through the development of a multi-node wireless system based on the QCA6438 and QCA6428 chipsets. Distinct from the 2.4 and 5GHz bands commonly used in Wi-Fi networks all over the world, mmWave-based 60GHz Wi-Fi is a low interference, bandwidth-rich spectrum that delivers increased wireless capacity, multi-gigabit speeds, and ultra-low latency. These attributes make 60GHz Wi-Fi ideally suited across a wide range of wireless ecosystems spanning mobile, enterprise, outdoor backhaul, and the smart home.

Empowered by double-digit gigabit-per-second speeds, this new family of solutions provides wire-equivalent latencies enabling new and exciting gaming and entertainment experiences such as 4K streaming, virtually lag-free mobile screen casting to an entertainment system and truly immersive wireless virtual and augmented reality experiences, all the while providing high-power efficiency to significantly extend battery life.

Signature attributes of 60GHz Wi-Fi go far beyond high performance throughput, as Qualcomm Technologies’ new chipsets enable unique, always-on ambient Wi-Fi sensing capabilities, enabling devices to identify people, objects, movements and precise location without being affected by light conditions. Networking and mobile devices alike can take advantage of these new Wi-Fi sensing features to provide new and differentiated experiences to end-users.