Intel on Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas announced its first communications chip for the 5G. The company expects to make the chip available in limited quantities in the second half of the year.
This follows Qualcomm's announcement last October of its Snapdragon X50 5G modem, making Qualcomm the first company to announce a commercial 5G modem chipset solution.
Intel said that the new Intel 5G Modem is a milestone for the industry, enabling businesses across the globe to develop and launch early 5G solutions. It will accelerate the development of 5G-enabled devices – offering opportunities for leaders across diverse industries to innovate with early deployments. However, today’s communications systems weren’t designed to accommodate the massive bandwidth required to support such an evolution, or the ultra-low latency needed to allow devices or even vehicles to react to split-second events.
Intel added that the 5G modem's baseband chip pairs with a new 5G transceiver that enables both sub-6 Ghz and mmWave capabilities. This powerful combination incorporates key 3GPP 5G NR (new radio) technology – including low latency frame structures, advanced channel coding and massive MIMO – to deliver faster connectivity and ultra-responsiveness. Our goal is to support both early trials and to lay a foundation enabling accelerated development of products that will support the 3GPP NR specification and help drive global adoption of the 3GPP 5G standard.
