PARIS, France – February 22, 2017 – LTE for IoT chipmaker Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS) today introduced Monarch SX, a highly-integrated system-on-chip that combines Sequans’ IoT optimized Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT platform with a low-power ARM® Cortex®-M4 processor, low power sensor hub, graphics display controller, and media processing engine, all in one compact package of less than 90 square millimeters. Monarch SX is designed to streamline the development of numerous types of IoT devices, including trackers, wearables, sensors, utility meters, and other smart home and city applications.
“We’ve taken our industry-leading Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT chip platform and integrated it—on a single piece of silicon—with the processing power needed for some of the most popular IoT applications of today,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. “Monarch SX eliminates the need for adding external processors to run IoT applications supporting voice, music, graphics display, sensor or location data collection. Furthermore, all of Monarch SX’s integrated components are highly optimized for power-efficiency, enabling LTE-M or NB-IoT applications to run for many years on very small batteries and deliver industry-leading price/performance capability.”
Monarch SX SoC Main Components
- Based on Sequans’ Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT platform with baseband, RF, RAM and power management, and integrating:
- ARM Cortex-M4 processor
- Media processing engine for audio and voice applications, including support for VoLTE on LTE-M
- Low-power sensor hub
- GPU and display controller
- IoT interfaces for USB, screen, microphone, battery, GNSS, SIM card, secure element, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, keyboard, accelerometer, gyroscope, and other sensors
- Single chip FC-CSP package
“We built Monarch SX for our IoT device maker customers, understanding what they want to build and the functionality they want to incorporate in their designs,” said Karam. “Because of its high integration level, Monarch SX is ideal for the smallest of IoT devices where space is at a premium—wearables, trackers, and all types of sensors—and because of its powerful integrated processors, it’s also ideal for smart IoT devices.”
According to Chris Taylor, Strategy Analytics’ director of RF and Wireless Components: “Monarch SX from Sequans not only incorporates a low-power-consumption applications processor suitable for IoT, but it also integrates the RF transceiver and baseband processor into one SoC; that’s at least three radio and processor chips integrated into one. This kind of integration helps M2M module and cellular IoT device makers by simplifying design and production, reducing costs and time to market. This is exactly what LTE-M and NB-IoT need to capture share in the growing cellular IoT and LPWAN markets.”
“With the introduction of the powerful, all-in-one Monarch SX, we aim to accelerate new LTE-M and NB-IoT device development and help our customers get highly differentiated IoT devices to market as quickly as possible,” said Karam.
See Sequans next week at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, February 27 – March 2, hall 7, stand 7-I81.
About Sequans Communications
Sequans Communications S.A. (NYSE: SQNS) is a leading provider of single-mode 4G LTE semiconductor solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and a wide range of broadband data devices. Founded in 2003, Sequans has developed and delivered seven generations of 4G technology and its chips are certified and shipping in 4G networks around the world. Today, Sequans offers two LTE product lines: StreamrichLTE™, optimized for feature-rich mobile computing and home/portable router devices, and StreamliteLTE™, optimized for M2M devices and other connected devices for the IoT. Sequans is based in Paris, France with additional offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Visit Sequans online at www.sequans.com; www.facebook.com/sequans; www.twitter.com/sequans
