Nvidia Icera 410 LTE Modem Passes AT&T Network Validation
by Brian Klug on May 24, 2012 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- LTE
- Mobile
- Icera
- NVIDIA
Since acquiring Icera, Nvidia has been busy readying itself for the next level of integration - selling baseband in addition to APs (Application Processors), and further down the road, inclusion of the baseband onboard the SoC. Today's news is a small step and logical precursor toward both goals, Nvidia's Icera 410 LTE and HSPA+ baseband has passed AT&T's network validation testing (NVT) which means the baseband is now approved to ship in subsidized tablets and clamshells, but not phones yet. The approval validates both the ICE8061 baseband and ICE8261 transceiver which comprise the Icera 410 chipset. Before the Nvidia acquisition, the Icera 410 chipset was named the Espresso 410 10 MHz platform.
Icera 410 is a multimode LTE / DC-HSPA+ / GSM baseband capable of essentially all the features you'd expect for this generation, including 64QAM on HSPA+, the option for DC-HSPA+ (dual cell), and interference cancelation (Type 3i). The only downside is that Icera 410 is an LTE UE Category 2 part, which means it can do 50 Mbps maximum on the downlink on 10 MHz FDD-LTE, compared to UE Category 3's 73 Mbps maximum for 10 MHz FDD-LTE. That said, the success of other UE Category 2 devices (like Motorola's Wrigley in all Motorola 4G LTE phones) shows that this isn't a huge deal breaker. As a reminder, AT&T is running both 5 and 10 MHz FDD-LTE depending on the market.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to make the next logical leap, which is what role the Icera 410 IP blocks will play in Nvidia's upcoming codename "Grey" SoC, which includes an as yet unannounced Icera baseband.
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ratbert1 - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
The article channel has been just a lot of PR lately. Must be a holiday coming. Give me some meat!phoenix_rizzen - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
Talk about a "first world" problem. :) Do we really need more than 50 Mbps downloads on our phones and tablets?If that's the only negative ...
SteveTheWalrus - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
YA i know right? Where i live i can only get up Mbps for my home internet...and yet i still have 4G coverage and get roughly 20 Mbps on that....
phoenix_rizzen - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
Rogers did an LTE download speed test competition up here in Canada. The winning entry was over 100 Mbps ... on a PHONE!My home cable Internet connection (DOCSIS 2.0) tops out at 25 Mbps. At HOME! Sure, if I upgrade to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, Shaw supports 250 Mbps, but that's overkill for our needs.
Complaining about "only supports 50 Mbps downloads" (on a PHONE) just makes me shake my head in wonder. :)
SunLord - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
100Mpbs on a single phone or even several phones isn't really a surprise the problem has and will always be signal congestion and backhaul you can only have so many leeches on a tower before you over saturate and speeds collapse.Penti - Friday, May 25, 2012 - link
Supporting higher speeds (category) or a larger spectrum in LTE/4G actually means much. Nobody expects much on 5 or 10MHz FDD-LTE, but 20 Mbit/s is actually a good average there. A Docsis 2.0 connection can easily average 25Mbit/s all the time pretty much. UE Cat 2 10MHz will roughly be half the speed of say UE Cat 2 20MHz LTE. DC-HSPA+ will easily match the slightly lower speeds of LTE 10MHz for that matter and often surpass the 5MHz variants. The important thing with LTE is although other improvements than speed and continuing building networks on IP. Still waiting on native VOIP (VoLTE) here before I even consider to jump in though. It's nice to use the phone as a modem but I don't think the benefit outweighs the downfalls yet with LTE enabled phones. Also remember that LTE will have a higher cost for any decent amount of network traffic then cable, dsl, fiberlan, fiber or other last mile solutions. Most cable connections have not at least yet any metered usage but I guess you will get that in the US (were you also won't get 2x20MHz LTE).mnasub - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
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