Qualcomm Technologies announced earlier this month, at the 5G Summit in Barcelona, Spain, they are developing the first Azure Sphere certified chipset with cellular connectivity. This new offering expands Qualcomm’s broad set of solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) to include the secured MCU (microcontroller) capabilities of the Microsoft Azure Sphere platform; including Azure Sphere OS, secured MCU, and Azure Sphere Security Service (AS3).

This new offering expands Qualcomm’s broad set of solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) to include the secured MCU (microcontroller) capabilities of the Microsoft Azure Sphere platform.

Microsoft Azure Sphere provides a much more secured IoT platform for building solutions that utilize it’s secured MCU capabilities that extend through hardware, software, and cloud layers. Azure Sphere enables more highly secured IoT solutions to be built more quickly and easier than ever before. In the announcement from Qualcomm Technologies, Galen Hunt, distinguished engineer and managing director for Microsoft Azure Sphere was quoted as stating, “For IoT innovations to be reliable, they must be built on a foundation of security. Qualcomm Technologies will allow partners to innovate with the assurance that their products, customers, and brands are secured.”

Current Azure Sphere chipsets are available with Wifi connectivity. This addition of Cellular connectivity from Qualcomm will enable new connected devices and scenarios to be built. Sure, existing Azure Sphere chips could be connected to a cellular add-on device, but having it integrated into single package will enable more secure devices to be built through the more tightly integrated components; as well as lowering the barrier to building cellular connected devices on the Azure Sphere platform. Devices built with the new cellular connected Azure Sphere chips from Qualcomm will enable more diverse deployments across more remote field locations and uses as long as there is a cellular signal available. The result is more highly secured IoT devices that can be deployed anywhere that leverage the security and expertise of both the Microsoft Azure Sphere platform and Qualcomm technologies.

The result is more highly secured IoT devices that can be deployed anywhere that leverage the security and expertise of both the Microsoft Azure Sphere platform and Qualcomm technologies.

Previously, Qualcomm has already been working with Microsoft to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the Intelligent Edge through the Vision AI Developer Kit for Azure IoT featuring the Qualcomm Vision Intelligence 300 Platform. This provides a platform for building on-device AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities at the Edge. They have also released Azure IoT SDK support for the Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem; which provides a purpose-built LPWA chipset for IoT that offers global multimode LTE category M1 (eMTC) and NB2 (NB-IoT) connectivity; in addition to 2G/E-GPRS connectivity.

You can read the original press release from Qualcomm Technologies here: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2019/10/15/qualcomm-technologies-enhance-secure-cellular-connectivity-solutions

Article Author

Chris Pietschmann Chris is the Founder of Build5Nines.com and a Microsoft MVP in Azure & IoT with 20 years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He is also a Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect, developer, Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and Cloud Advocate. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.