HetNet Happenings Episode 45 looks at chipsets with Altair Semiconductor, Imagination Technologies and Nvidia
The 2016 CES event placed a huge emphasis on the “Internet of Things” and how IoT technology is poised to revolutionize consumer, enterprise and industrial markets.
But the problem with CES (because there’s only one) is the technology on display is often redundant, not particularly useful and, in many cases, will never make it to market.
So to get a feel for what’s really going on in the IoT space, RCR Wireless News decided to focus coverage on the chipsets that are making IoT applications possible. Utility sensors, autonomous vehicles and home developer kits are all iterations of IoT tech and all rely on purpose-built chipsets to work.
On this episode of HetNet Happenings, host Sean Kinney talks with representatives from Altair Semiconductor about low-power Cat 1 chipsets that, in some cases, can last more than a decade after deployment; Nvidia showcases the Drive PX2 platform, which essentially puts a supercomputer in your vehicle; and Imagination highlights a developer’s kit that will allow makers to potentially make the next big IoT breakthrough from their garages.
Eran Eshed, co-founder and VP of marketing at Altair, told RCR Wireless News: “IoT – it’s a single word, but it represents numerous markets and segments. But actually, single-mode LTE is the de facto connectivity solution because of cost and power and even size. We’re competing with Qualcomm and Intel, with chipsets that are four-times as big and consume 10-times the power because they are derivations of multi-mode smartphone chips, where our chips are specifically LTE-only.”
In the crowded autonomous vehicles space, Nvidia stood out from competitors in that the company puts all of the computational power – in the case of Drive PX2, eight teraflops, roughly the equivalent of 150 Apple Macbook Pro laptop computers – in the vehicle.
Dave Anderson, Nvidia senior manager of automotive integration, explained the onboard compute power is “fully integrated into the vehicle. You really need to make real time decisions for the guidance of your vehicle, so you need to have all that processing power on board.”
For previous episodes of HetNet Happenings and other RCRtv productions, click here.
