Qualcomm today announced two components that should improve how WiFi hotspots and mobile devices work with one another. The first piece of the puzzle is the IPQ8074 system-on-a-chip for gateways and routers. Qualcomm says the IPQ8074 improves network capacity by a factor of four through 12-streams (eight 5 GHz and four 2.4 GHz), 8x8 MU-MIMO, 80 MHz channels. The complete SoC includes an 802.11ax radio, MAC and baseband, plus a quad-core 64-bit A53 CPU and dual-core network accelerator to provide a fully-offloaded 11ax subsystem. Qualcomm manages all this with its WiFi Self-Organizing Network to help ease installation pains, reduce dead spots, and optimize traffic. The IPQ8074 works hand-in-hand with the QCA6290 SoC for devices. The QCA6290 can take advantage of all that the IPQ8074 offers for peak speeds of 1.8 Gbps by using both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands together with 1024 QAM. All this, according to Qualcomm, can help boost capacity and speed while also cutting back on power requirements by as much as two-thirds. Qualcomm says the IPQ8074 and QCA6290 will sample at some point during the first half of the year. The company didn't say when the combo will reach routers and mobile devices.


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