Qualcomm Technologies to Enhance Secure Cellular Connectivity Solutions with Microsoft Azure Sphere for the IoT

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced today at its 5G Summit in Barcelona, Spain that it is developing the first cellular chip optimized and certified for Microsoft’s Azure Sphere Internet of Things (IoT) operating system. Qualcomm Technologies’ new Azure Sphere-certified chipset for IoT will include hardware-level security, come preconfigured with the Azure Sphere, and will automatically connect to Azure Sphere security cloud services.

“We are pleased to expand our broad portfolio of solutions for the Internet of Things and to add the powerful capabilities of Microsoft Azure Sphere to our upcoming chipset,” said Jeffery Torrance, vice president, business development, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We hope to enable exciting new business transformations for customers in a variety of verticals, where powerful edge computing, low latency connectivity, and end-to-end security can make an important difference.”

Azure Sphere is Microsoft’s end-to-end solution that includes an Azure Sphere certified chip, the Azure Sphere Operating System and the Azure Sphere Security Service. The solution adds to Qualcomm Technologies’ robust hardware-based security to make it easy for manufacturers to create secure solutions, and to keep devices up to date over time with over a decade of security and OS updates created and delivered directly to each device by Microsoft.

“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,” said Galen Hunt, distinguished engineer and managing director, Microsoft Azure Sphere. “The new IoT chipset will light up a broad set of new scenarios at the outer edge—even the most resource-constrained ones. Together with the silicon innovation and cellular and embedded security expertise Qualcomm Technologies brings, our partners will have the freedom to securely connect devices anytime, anywhere.”

This builds on Qualcomm Technologies’ ongoing work with Microsoft, which previously brought AI to the Intelligent Edge with the Vision AI Developer Kit for Azure IoT solutions featuring the Qualcomm^® Vision Intelligence 300 Platform, which delivers powerful edge computing for on-device AI and machine learning, with exceptional thermal efficiency, across a wide range of IoT applications. They also recently released Azure IoT SDK support for Qualcomm Technologies’ latest cutting-edge IoT chipset, the Qualcomm^® 9205 LTE modem. The Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem is a purpose-built LPWA chipset for the IoT, offering global multimode LTE category M1 (eMTC) and NB2 (NB-IoT) connectivity, as well as 2G/E-GPRS connectivity, application processing, geolocation, hardware-based security, support for cloud services and accompanying developer tools, and comes with a fully integrated RF front-end. It also features a comprehensive hardware security framework, including Qualcomm® Trusted Execution Environment, and counts more than 27 licensees to date.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm invents breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects, computes and communicates. When we connected the phone to the Internet, the mobile revolution was born. Today, our inventions are the foundation for life-changing products, experiences, and industries. As we lead the world to 5G, we envision this next big change in cellular technology spurring a new era of intelligent, connected devices and enabling new opportunities in connected cars, remote delivery of health care services, and the IoT — including smart cities, smart homes, and wearables. Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including the QCT semiconductor business. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

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