Qualcomm has announced a swathe of new IoT focused products and technologies. The QCC730 is a new micro-power Wi-Fi system for IoT connectivity. The RB3 Gen 2 is a hardware and software solution designed for AI-supported IoT and embedded applications. The company has also announced the forthcoming launch of a new platform designed for industrial embedded systems and IIoT.

Qualcomm Technologies has unveiled the Qualcomm QCC730, a micro-power Wi-Fi system for IoT connectivity. This provides up to 88% lower power than previous generations, and is particularly aimed at battery powered industrial, commercial and consumer applications.

QCC730 will be complemented with an open-source IDE and SDK that supports cloud connectivity offloading for ease of development.

The new Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform is a hardware and software solution designed for IoT and embedded applications. Employing the Qualcomm QCS6490 processor, the RB3 Gen 2 offers a combination of high-performance processing, 10x increase in on-device AI processing1, support for quadruple 8MP+ camera sensors, computer vision, and integrated Wi-Fi 6E.

RB3 Gen 2 is expected to be used in a wide range of products, including various types of robots, drones, industrial handheld devices, industrial and connected cameras, AI edge boxes, intelligent displays, and more.

The RB3 Gen 2 is also supported in the recently announced Qualcomm AI Hub, which contains a library of continuously refreshed pre-optimised AI models with improved on-device AI performance, lower memory utilisation, and power optimised operation. This allows for an out-of-the-box optimised experience across a variety of broadly used AI models deployed across IoT and embedded applications. Developers can view a selection of models for RB3 Gen 2 and integrate the optimised AI models into their applications.

RB3 Gen 2 features support for Qualcomm® Linux®—a comprehensive package of OS, software, tools, and documentation precisely designed for Qualcomm Technologies’ IoT platforms. It offers a unified Linux distribution that caters to multiple SoCs, starting with the QCS6490 processor, featuring essential components like the Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel, to enable a consistent and superior developer experience. The Qualcomm Linux software stack extends support to all processor cores, subsystems, and components within the platform. Qualcomm Linux is currently available for private preview with select collaborators and is planned for wider availability to developers in the coming months.

Qualcomm Technologies is introducing an industrial grade platform to address functional safety and environmental and mechanical handling requirements in industrial applications. The platform will support System Integrity Level certification, vast operating temperature ranges, and industrial module packaging to address the deployment requirements in enterprise and industrial environments. The solution is expected to be available in June 2024.

It will feature high performance CPU, GPU, and on-device AI capabilities, advanced safe camera ISP with multi-concurrent camera support, and support for industrial I/O needs. 

“Complementing high-performance, low-latency wireless connectivity solutions, Qualcomm QCC730 SoC is an industry-leading micro-powered Wi-Fi solution enabling Wi-Fi for the world of battery powered IoT platforms. QCC730 enables devices to support TCP/IP networking capabilities while remaining form-factor and complete wireless constrained, whilst remaining connected to the Cloud platforms,” said Rahul Patel, group general manager, connectivity, broadband and networking (CBN), Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Along with the rest of the our IoT connectivity portfolio, this new offering places Qualcomm Technologies at the centre of next generation battery-powered smart-home, healthcare, gaming and other consumer electronic devices, and reflects on our commitment to utilise our decades of R&D to pioneer new user consumer experiences.”

“We are excited to introduce the RB3 Gen 2 Platform, which is designed to bring advanced on-device AI capabilities to a wide range of mid-tier IoT applications,” said Jeff Torrance, senior vice president and general manager, industrial and embedded IoT, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Coming soon, we will be expanding our portfolio of IoT products to address high-performance, industrial grade solutions that will bring a new era of intelligence, functional safety, and robust high-performance compute and I/O capabilities to the most demanding industrial applications.”