Qualcomm releases extra-efficient iot chipset with consumption of 1µA

Qualcomm has released a new chipset for iot devices. The 212 LTE IoT Modem is a single-mode NB2 chipset that is mainly intended to drive devices efficiently and without much power consumption.

According to the manufacturer, the new chipset is mainly aimed at internet-of-things equipment, and specifically devices that run on batteries. The 212 LTE is made to consume as little power as possible and would therefore be especially interesting for devices that have to ‘stand for years in the field’. Qualcomm mentions a period of fifteen years. The chipset consumes a microamp in sleep mode. Qualcomm says it has built the chipset to work with a wide variety of batteries. The power consumption can be adjusted to different power levels. The chipset could power devices on 2.2 volts.

The 212 chipset supports single-mode 3GPP Release 14, and NB2-iot. As a result, it can control rf bands between 700MHz and 2.1GHz, and with the ARM Cortex M3 processor also LTE modules of ‘under a square centimeter’. Qualcomm says it is releasing an SDK for the chipset, allowing developers to write their own software for it that is compatible with platforms such as the Azure iot SDk, among others. The chipset will be available to manufacturers from the second half of the year.