Chip news: Neighborhood small cells and smarter cities

Qualcomm in the hood
The mobile chip giant wants to be part of your neighborhood, or your small business if you have one. At Small Cells World Summit 2014 Qualcomm introduced the FSM90xx, a small cell chipset that targets homes, neighborhoods, and small-to-medium businesses. The FSM90xx will be a less expensive cousin to last year’s FSM99xx, which targeted larger enterprises. Both chips can support 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi connections simultaneously.
Hardware accelerators are built into the new chipset, and Qualcomm says this will reduce both the bill of materials and the time needed for systems integration. The company says this is the first small cell chip for the home and small business market to be built using 28 nanometer technology. Smaller cuts in the silicon mean that more chips can be made from the same amount of material, another way to reduce the cost of the final product. The FSM90xx is expected to sample later this year.
Internet on a chip
Texas Instruments is the latest chipmaker to offer an embedded solution to add connectivity to everyday devices and appliances. Calling its new solution ‘the Internet on a chip,’ TI introduced SimpleLink Wi-Fi this week – a single-chip, low-power Wi-Fi solution with built-in programmable MCU designed for the Internet of Things. TI’s goal is to give customers the ability to securely connect their devices to Wi-Fi using a phone or tablet app or a web browser.
TI is offering two SimpleLink low-power chips – the CC3100 at $6.70 per 1,000 units, and the CC3200, starting at $7.99 per 1,000 units. These will be available in the third quarter. The solution also includes a $30 Launchpad product and a $50 Booster product. The company says it plans other IoT products in the future.
Smarter cities
Intel and the city of San Jose are collaborating to install a network of sensors to create a smarter city. Their partnership is Intel’s first smart city implementation in the United States, and is part of the SmartCities USA initiative, which Intel says will foster 25,000 clean-tech jobs. Intel’s chips will be used to monitor air and water quality, traffic, communications systems and other city infrastructure.
Meanwhile Qualcomm is working with CH2M HILL on a smart city solution for Cincinnati that will use M2M to help the city improve water quality. “Our technology teams have been working to solve both connectivity and communications challenges that are unique to water resource management systems by enabling solutions that are secure, reliable and support long battery life operation,” said Peggy Johnson, executive vice president of global market development at Qualcomm. The Qualcomm solution will help Cincinnati gather meaningful data in real-time in order to improve the management of its water resources.
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