Intel XMM7160 LTE Modem Demonstrated on Live Network
by Brian Klug on September 11, 2013 7:54 PM EST
Intel's lone ranger and Principal Engineer Francois Piednoel last night sent out an interesting tweet for anyone following Intel's XMM7160 LTE modem development. Francois posted a video showing LTE working on the Baytrail tablet FFRD platform with XMM7160 inside on a live LTE network, presumably AT&T's. The short video shows speedtest.net downstream throughput of about 55 Mbps inside a busy downtown San Francisco Starbucks cafe.
We also caught a glimpse of XMM7160 in a multimode data card form factor alongside an MDM9615 based design with comparable capabilities. This is the first good look we've been able to get of the baseband alongside DRAM and NAND MCP, PMIC, and above it, transceiver, filters, and power amplifier – the entire reference design implementation. The baseband is the part marked XG716 (X Gold 716) and the transceiver is the other Intel marked part. This kind of module would go into a notebook or tablet form factor for multimode 3G/4G LTE connectivity.
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nofumble62 - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Look like a 1x2 inch device. How can this fit into a phone?Zalcorus - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
Last sentence "This kind of module would go into a notebook or tablet form factor for multimode 3G/4G LTE connectivity."Would this card include 802.11n/ac? Or is it LTE/3G only?
ZeDestructor - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
If its like intel's older basebands, Cellular data only. Wifi+BT comes in the form of their excellent Centrino chips.Brian Klug - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
This would be cellular only, it's a WAN card essentially.-Brian
wintermute000 - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Why is this (and other laptop WAN cards) so big if obviously the ones in smartphones are much smaller?dealcorn - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
I look forward to your review of this chip. The review will provide insight whether Intel may gain significant smartphone share near term. Second, there is a position help by some haters that Intel's success is solely attributable to a combination of their dominant market share and superior process technology. Preliminary reports are that this chip is smaller than the competitors, more energy efficient than competitors, and fabbed at TSMC just like competitors. If accurate, this supports the position that by virtue of it's investments over time, Intel is flat out smarter than competitors. The chip lacks any process advantage and Intel is starting with an inferior market share. If Intel' TSMC product is better than competitor's TSMC product, Intel is scary good.ZeHank - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Why is Intel not launching an LTE product and bring an end to all the wait? Their VP's were talking about imminent launch of Samsung Galaxy Tab3 LTE a few months back, is it out yet?ZeDestructor - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Intel builds it. It's up to Samsung to launch the end device when they see fit. Either that, or buy this card and fit it to your laptop. I'm slightly tempted myself....Homeles - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
"If accurate, this supports the position that by virtue of it's investments over time, Intel is flat out smarter than competitors."While it's obvious that "smarter" people are "better" innovators, usually superiority in this sense is attributable to one company having more resources (read: money) than the other. I'd imagine pretty much all of the engineers are brilliant -- individual intelligence is unlikely to be a major factor at play here. Instead, Intel likely just has more smart guys, not smarter guys.
leidegre - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Is this in anyway related to the digital radio announcement Intel did about a year ago?