Low-power LTE 4G modems target wearables, IoT

The new FourGee modems are optimized for the small-form-factor and very-low-power-consumption characteristics that are typical of IoT devices. According to the company, its FourGee-1150 and 1160 chips offer up to 10 times better energy efficiency and half the connectivity cost of the standard LTE technologies being used today.

Adding a FourGee LTE chip to a wearable has less than 10% impact on battery life in a typical usage scenario (i.e. if a wearable device gets ~48 hrs on Bluetooth + Wi-Fi only, then it will last for ~44 hrs using FourGee LTE + Bluetooth + Wi-Fi), says the manufacturer. An LTE-powered smart meter could run for up to 10 years using several standard AA-type batteries. The FourGee chips also come equipped with next-generation OmniShield security technologies from Imagination, creating the required framework for safe deployment of services and software upgrades for IoT devices.

The FourGee-1150/6401 is a low-cost LTE Category-0 chipset featuring downlink speeds of up to 1Mbps, extremely low power consumption. This IoT-optimized chipset is highly integrated and incorporates elements such as an advanced on-chip power management unit, integrated DDR memory and a low power MCU subsystem with a robust security framework for customer developed applications. The chipset also feature numerous host, peripheral and sensor interfaces.

FourGee-1150 information page
FourGee-1160 information page

Altair Semiconductor: www.altair-semi.com