MediaTek has introduced its first 5G RedCap solutions with the M60 5G modem and the MediaTek T300 Arm Cortex-A35 SoC design to bring 5G-NR to wearables, light-weight AR devices, IoT modules, and consumer and industrial Edge AI devices.
5G RedCap (Reduced Capability), part of 3GPP Release 17, aims to keep some 5G features such as low latency, low power consumption, enhanced security, and network slicing while limiting the bandwidth (to around 85 Mbps) in order to be used in IoT devices and products that may not need the bandwidth required by smartphones and computers, but would benefit from longer battery life and a smaller footprint. MediaTek claims to be the first company to unveil 5G RedCap chips with the M60 modem and T300 SoC.
MediaTek M60 key features and specifications:
- 3GPP Release 17 standard 5G modem
- R17 UE power saving
- R17 Coverage enhancement
- R17 Small data transmission
- LTE & NR-FR1 (20MHz)
- Up to 256 QAM DL/UL
- 1T2R MIMO / 1CC
- Network slicing
- Low latency and reliability
- MediaTek’s 5G RedCap UltraSave
- 60% lower power compared to existing 4G IoT modem solutions
- 70% lower power compared to existing 5G eMBB modem solutions
- Additional 10% power saving with Release-17 power saving features enabled such as Paging Early Indication, UE Subgrouping, TRS info in idle mode, PDCCH monitoring adaptation, and RLM relaxation in connected mode
MediaTek alternatively refers to the M60 as a “Modem-RF SOC” and “modem IP” so it’s a bit confusing whether it’s a separate chip as the illustration above seems to imply or an IP block to be found in SoCs such as MediaTek T300 Arm Cortex-A35 5G RedCap processor. We have limited details about the processor at this stage, but we do know it will be manufactured with a 6nm TSMC process, and support up to 227 Mbps downlink and 122 Mbps uplink data rates, which are quite a bit higher than the 85 Mbps mentioned when we first covered 5G RedCap.
JC Hsu, Corporate Senior Vice President at MediaTek, expected 5G RedCap to completely replace 4G LTE over time:
The migration to 5G RedCap will replace legacy 4G/LTE solutions, offering significantly better power efficiency and more reliable user experiences compared to leading edge 5G eMMB modem solutions and legacy 4G LTE Cat 4 and Cat 6 devices.
The MediaTek T300 SoC will start sampling in H1 2024, and the first commercial samples (do they mean mass production?) will become available in H2 2024. Further information may be found on the product page and in the press release.
Thanks to TLS for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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5g and low power aren’t something which go together, low powered compared to previous iterations perhaps but not low power compared to 4g.
I forgot to mention Qualcomm Snapdragon X35 also supports 5G RedCap / 5G NR-Light.
https://www.cnx-software.com/2023/02/08/qualcomm-snapdragon-x35-5g-nr-light-modem-smartwatches-industrial-iot-xr-glasses/
Thanks for explaining RedCap as I had never heard of it before and that part made the headline very confusing.
if they wanted lower power they should have used a risc-v core instead of arm cortex-a35
How come? Why do you imply arm per se needs more power than riscv? Isn’t that a function of the optimisation and implementation?