Market-Attentive Dual-Mode LTE Chipset Leverages Altair's Flexible Architecture for Seamless Migration from CAT-1 to CAT-M

Altair Semiconductor (altair-semi.com), a leading provider of LTE chipsets, today announced that samples of its new dual-mode FourGee-1210 CAT-1/CAT-M chipset will be available later this year, enabling a smooth transition to the next standard of Cellular IoT networks.

While CAT-1 chipsets have been deployed around the world for a wide range of IoT applications, carriers and vendors alike have been pursuing the emerging CAT-M (CAT-M1) and NB-IoT (CAT-NB1) standards that offer extended coverage and battery life capabilities, as the ultimate core technology for cellular IoT. However, there will be a lengthy transition period until there exists sufficient coverage and standards maturity to enable complete conversion to CAT-M and NB-IoT. Until the ecosystem is ready to fully adopt these standards, a CAT-1 fallback will be required. This is what the FourGee-1210 provides.

"Like any migration to a new cellular network, the complex transition from CAT-1 to CAT-M will take time and could potentially delay carrier and vendor rollouts," said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Altair. "Altair's FourGee-1210 chipset will facilitate a smooth migration to CAT-M adoption, providing the ecosystem with the combined solution it needs for the next 18-24 months."

Key features and benefits of the new FourGee-1210 chipset include:

• Hardware/software compatible with Altair CAT-1 FourGee-1160, enabling the seamless reuse of existing customer modules to add CAT-M functionality
• Dual mode CAT-1/CAT-M with seamless switchover
• Support for CAT-M extended coverage enhancements
• Single Rx, optimized to reduce CAT-M module BOM cost
• Ultra-low power consumption, leveraging Altair's market-leading power reduction architecture
• Software Defined Radio (SDR), enabling over-the-air firmware upgrades (FOTA) to accommodate CAT-M feature evolution

The FourGee-1210 chipset will reach the market by the end of 2016, coinciding with the projected launch of the first CAT-M networks.

About Altair Semiconductor 

Altair Semiconductor, recently acquired by Sony Group, is a leading provider of single-mode LTE chipsets. Altair's portfolio covers the complete spectrum of cellular 4G market needs, from supercharged video-centric applications all the way to ultra-low power, low cost IoT and M2M. Altair has shipped millions of LTE chipsets to date, commercially deployed on the world's most advanced LTE networks. For more information, please visit http://www.altair-semi.com . Follow Altair on Twitter: @AltairSemi

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SOURCE Altair Semiconductor