Intel Announces XMM7480 LTE Modem: 4x4 MIMO, 256QAM
 

At MWC 2016, Intel announced their latest modem, the XMM7480. While to some extent Intel’s cadence isn’t quite as aggressive as others in the modem space, Intel’s modems are still a relevant part of the modem ecosystem.

At a high level, the XMM 7480 platform introduces a number of new features that haven’t been seen in previous Intel cellular solutions. One addition is the AmpTrack envelope tracking IC, which allows for closed loop voltage control of the power supply for the power amplifier on the transmit chain. This isn’t really a new technology per se as we’ve seen Qualcomm’s QFE1100 as early as the Galaxy Note 3, but it’s nice to see that an OEM hoping to integrate Intel’s X-Gold 748 baseband no longer needs to do the work to integrate a separate envelope tracking IC. It’s likely that the baseband is leveraging CEVA’s DSP IP, but we currently don’t have any information to confirm whether or not this is the case.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10093/...x4-mimo-256qam