Snapdragon X50—Qualcomm’s first 5G modem

Qualcomm Technologies prides itself on being a wireless technology leader. It’s at the very heart of our identity, the core of what defines and drives us. Our inventions have pushed the boundaries of wireless technology for decades.
And now company brought you 3G and 4G is doing it again.On 17th Oct Qualcomm announced the Qualcomm Snapdrgon X50 5G modem.It is Qualcomm Technologies' first 5G modem. Qualcomm Technologies has led the 5G conversation, and now far from other companiesand  leading the way with the realization of actual 5G products.
The Snapdragon X50 5G modem is a remarkable milestone in and of itself. But its capabilities are even more impressive. It’s engineered to support unprecedented download speeds of up to 5Gbps. It is designed to achieve these breathtaking speeds by utilizing very wide bandwidths available in the 28 GHz millimeter wave (mmWave) band combined with advanced signal processing technologies.Given the challenges posed by the propagation characteristics of mmWave spectrum, many had speculated that mmWave would be confined to fixed wireless applications. But the X50 modem bears the Snapdragon name and is made by Qualcomm Technologies, so naturally, it’s built from the ground up for mobility.
 Instead of using only a handful of antennas (as with 4G), the Snapdragon X50 5G modem relies on multi-element antenna arrays. The antennas are designed to work together intelligently, using beamforming and beam tracking technologies, extending m

mWave’s mobility and reach to non-line-of-sight scenarios. For example, the Snapdragon X50 5G modem can direct the energy of the mmWave beam, bouncing off obstacles to reach the mmWave 5G small cell with which it is communicating.
If the device move completly out of range 4G LTE will enabled in the device.Qualcomm Technologies, along with Telstra, Ericsson, and NETGEAR, announced the first commercial Gigabit Class LTE device and network.  The drop in broadband speed during this transition won’t be precipitous; after all, it’s inconceivable that people will tolerate a drop from multi-gigabit per second peak download speeds to only a few hundred megabits.

The Snapdragon X50 5G modem is designed to make this seamless mobility possible. It can be paired with a Snapdragon processor with an integrated Gigabit Class LTE modem. In addition to supporting 4G LTE and mmWave 5G, the complete 4G/5G multi-mode platform is designed to help provide dual-connectivity to both (so a mobile device can connect simultaneously over both generations of technology) to achieve seamless mobility between the two.
The Snapdragon X50 5G modem is expected to begin sampling in the second half of 2017, and the first products integrating it are expected to surface throughout 2018.

Source:Qualcomm technologies