Altair Semiconductor, a provider of LTE chipsets, has introduced the ALT1250, a narrowband CAT-M1 and NB1 (NB-IoT) chipset that aims to redefine the cellular IoT connectivity space, featuring global band support, advanced security and location capabilities far surpassing the functionality of existing chipsets.
“With carriers expected to begin operating IoT services on CAT-M1 and NB1 networks by the middle of the year, the new ALT1250 comes at the right time. It possesses the much-anticipated combination of features, power and cost required to support massive rollout of such services,” said Eran Eshed, co-founder and VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Altair. “We’ve taken a fresh look at what the market expects from us, and produced the most integrated, feature rich and cost-optimised chipset we’ve ever developed.”
The ALT1250’s extreme level of integration eliminates most of the external components required to design a cellular IoT module. Approximately the size of a shirt button and less than 100mm2 in size, an ALT1250 module features support for both Release 13 standards – CAT-M1 and NB1, and includes a wideband RF front-end supporting unlimited combinations of LTE bands within a single hardware design, an integrated GPS receiver, a multi-layered and hardware-based security framework, an internal application MCU subsystem and packaging that enables standard, low-cost PCB manufacturing.
“Altair’s new ALT1250 chipset is a true Low Power Wide Area solution for IoT,” said Philippe Guillemette, CTO for Sierra Wireless. “As a market leader in IoT, Sierra Wireless is always in pursuit of the best chipset platforms that will enable us to offer highly differentiated products to our customers. We believe the ALT1250 will provide us with that kind of a competitive edge, on top of which we can build our added value and features to meet our customers’ needs.”
“This chipset is a real game-changer,” added Eshed. “The long debate is over regarding how competitive cellular chipsets can be compared to proprietary LPWA. The ALT1250 is the evidence that cellular technologies are not only superior in functionality, reliability and security, but are also as cost-efficient or more compared to non-cellular options.”
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