Qualcomm Taps Adobe GenStudio to Optimize Content Supply Chain with Generative AI

• Qualcomm is expanding its relationship with Adobe to accelerate content creation workflows with generative AI, from resizing and localizing marketing assets to creating variations for different audiences. 
• Applications in Adobe GenStudio—Adobe’s end to end content supply chain solution—including GenStudio for Performance Marketing, Firefly, Express, Experience Manager and Workfront are enabling Qualcomm to efficiently scale personalized, on-brand marketing campaigns

Today, Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced that Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq:QCOM) has selected Adobe GenStudio to accelerate its content supply chain with generative AI. As Qualcomm expands its leadership in intelligent computing, the mandate for its marketers has grown. Teams are having to orchestrate highly tailored experiences to accelerate deal closure, in a crowded environment where every digital channel is demanding more content. With Adobe GenStudio, Qualcomm can optimize its entire content supply chain to meet this demand, leveraging AI to power the production, activation and measurement of personalized experiences. This includes making it more efficient to produce and customize the thousands of assets needed every week to deliver and scale impactful campaigns—unlocking productivity across the marketing organization.

“Qualcomm has delivered technology breakthroughs that have reshaped industries for over 40 years, and we are in a unique position to power the next era of AI transformation,” said Don McGuire, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Qualcomm Incorporated. “To meet this moment, we’re rethinking how creativity scales - streamlining the content creation process from ideation to execution. Adobe GenStudio will enable our teams to produce high-quality, personalized assets faster and more efficiently, unlocking new levels of productivity and creative impact across the marketing organization.”

“Achieving personalization at scale is a major growth lever for businesses, but inefficient content supply chains often slow down an organization’s ability to customize experiences across audiences,” said Varun Parmar, general manager, Adobe GenStudio and Firefly Enterprise. “Adobe GenStudio uniquely brings together AI, creativity and marketing solutions for Qualcomm to overcome these roadblocks, dramatically increasing output while maintaining a high bar for quality.”

Qualcomm is leveraging applications within Adobe GenStudio including:

Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing: Effectively scaling content creation with generative AI requires that every new asset is on-brand, high-quality and backed with performance insights for teams to optimize creative. This is enabled through GenStudio for Performance Marketing, a generative AI-first application that Qualcomm will use to create, resize and translate content for different marketing channels. Marketers can quickly create compelling image and video assets, anchored in brand guidelines defined by their creative counterparts. Additionally, attribute-level performance insights enable teams to adjust creative elements based on target KPIs.

Adobe Express: Across the Qualcomm marketing organization, Express will act as a self-service tool that allows teams to create and customize assets on the fly. It complements Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing, with approved brand guidelines (templates, colors, fonts) that give more individuals the confidence to produce content for their channels. It will enable the social and regional teams, for instance, to quickly create assets for time-sensitive campaigns.

Adobe Firefly: Qualcomm is piloting use cases with Firefly—a commercially safe family of AI models—to meet the rising demand for content across digital channels. This includes training Firefly on existing IP, enabling teams to confidently generate on-brand imagery for marketing assets while also maintaining creative control.

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM):

Qualcomm is also expanding its use of AEM—a content management system—and will experiment with activating different content experiences via the ‘Generate Variations’ capability. For digital channels such as the website, teams can use simple text prompts to test different creative and messaging across target personas.

These new applications extend the value of Qualcomm’s existing Adobe investment. Content creation workflows are anchored in Adobe Workfront for instance, the work management application that streamlines the process of planning, assigning and executing work across marketing and creative teams. And with Marketo—the leading marketing automation platform—teams can pull in insights to align content experiences with customer behaviors and drive better targeting. By partnering with Adobe to optimize its content supply chain, Qualcomm is demonstrating how marketers can drive the business forward in today’s crowded, attention-based economy.

To learn more about how Qualcomm is partnering with Adobe to deliver great customer experiences, visit here.

About Adobe GenStudio

Adobe GenStudio transforms the enterprise content supply chain with the power of AI. Learn more here.

National Telecom R&D and Skilling Hub Takes Shape in Jabalpur, MP As BSNL Ties With Ericsson, Qualcomm, Cisco & Nokia

BSNL has launched a major industry-led digital skilling initiative at its premier training institute, Bharat Ratna Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute of Telecom Training (BRBRAITT), Jabalpur, in collaboration with Ericsson, Qualcomm, Cisco, and Nokia. Here's a breakdown of the initiative's scope, objectives, and impact:

This development is a step towards a broader plan by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, to establish a Telecom Innovation, Research and Training Centre (TIRTC) at BRBRAITT. Envisioned as an industry-led national hub, TIRTC will focus on developing telecom-specific R&D talent and a future-ready workforce — aligning with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of Skill India and Atmanirbhar Bharat.

TIRTC will also support product innovation, prototyping, and telecom entrepreneurship in the long term.

Initiative Overview

• Partners: Ericsson India, Qualcomm Technologies, Cisco Systems, Nokia Solutions and Networks India
• Location: Bharat Ratna Bhim Rao Ambedkar Institute of Telecom Training (BRBRAITT), Jabalpur
• Focus Areas: 5G, AI/ML, Cybersecurity, Networking
• Annual Training Goal: Over 2,000 students

Training Programs & Infrastructure

Partner	Contribution	Training Focus
Ericsson	5G Centre of Excellence + Ericsson Educate Program	Hands-on 5G training, global curriculum
Qualcomm	Qualcomm Institute + sponsored training for first 100 participants	Advanced 5G & AI, internships
Cisco	Cisco Networking Academy Program	Networking, cybersecurity, IT skills
Nokia	5G Centre of Excellence + AI/ML Lab + joint certification with BRBRAITT	5G radio/core networks, AI/ML

Strategic Goals

• Establish Telecom Innovation, Research and Training Centre (TIRTC) at BRBRAITT
• Support national missions: Digital India, Skill India, Make in India, Startup India, Atmanirbhar Bharat
• Build a digitally enabled, job-ready youth workforce. 
• Position Jabalpur as a national hub for telecom R&D, innovation, and skilling

Launch & Leadership

• MoUs signed in New Delhi
• Attended by Union Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal, BSNL leadership, and partner company representatives

Tata Elxsi Launches XR Platform 'Coalesce' Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Spaces XR Platform

Tata Elxsi recently launched Coalesce, an innovative XR platform powered by the Snapdragon Spaces XR Platform from Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

An Immersive Collaboration, Coalesce facilitates immersive collaboration by bringing together spatial computing, digital twins, and simulations.

The Snapdragon Spaces XR Platform is an integrated platform and ecosystem developed by Qualcomm Technologies Inc. for creating immersive experiences on XR (Extended Reality) devices. The platform enables spatial computing experiences, allowing users to interact with digital content in a 3D space. It supports a wide range of XR devices, including VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), and MR (Mixed Reality) headsets.

Coalesce, the newly launched platform, supports reviews of product models, allowing teams to interact with 3D models in a virtual environment. It includes features for sharing text, audio comments, notes, and screen recordings with globally dispersed teams.

Coalesce offers a 360-degree review for immersive interaction, enhancing the collaborative experience.The platform is device-agnostic and web-based, making it accessible across various XR devices.

This solution is designed to help businesses create transformative spatial computing experiences, making remote collaboration more efficient and engaging.

Aditya S Chikodi, Vice President & Head - Industrial Design, Engineering, & XR, said, “Product design and engineering are taking a leap forward with augmented virtual reality and spatial computing. Coalesce introduces a revolutionary approach to digital twins and performance simulation, pushing the boundaries of XR in the product development process.”

Per Neilson, Senior Director, Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., added, “Tata Elxsi is working to bring the Coalesce platform to market, empowering industries and executive workforce to collaborate and make real-time decisions in product design and enterprise simulated environments. We are excited to see this platform brought to Snapdragon Spaces.”

Apple Developing Its Own In-House Modem for iPhone, To Reduce Dependence on Qualcomm

In a significant move towards reducing its dependence on third-party suppliers, Apple has embarked on an ambitious project to design and develop its own in-house cellular modem. This strategic decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for the tech giant's future products, particularly the iPhone.

For years, Apple has relied on Qualcomm, a leading modem manufacturer, to provide the crucial component that enables iPhones to connect to cellular networks. For example, the iPhone 13 Pro features the Qualcomm X60 modem.

However, Apple-Qualcomm partnership has been marred by legal disputes and supply chain constraints.

By developing its own modem, Apple aims to:

1. Enhance Performance: An in-house modem will allow Apple to optimize the component's performance, leading to faster data speeds, better battery life, and improved overall user experience.

2. Reduce Dependence: By controlling its own modem design, Apple will no longer be subject to Qualcomm's pricing and supply whims, ensuring a more stable and predictable component pipeline.

3. Foster Innovation: An in-house modem will give Apple the freedom to experiment with new technologies and features, driving innovation and differentiation in its products.

Challenges

While the benefits are clear, developing a cutting-edge modem is a complex task. Apple faces significant technical challenges, including:

1. Engineering Expertise: Modem design requires specialized knowledge and expertise, which Apple will need to acquire or develop in-house.

2. Testing and Validation: Ensuring the modem meets stringent industry standards and works seamlessly across various networks and regions will be a daunting task.

3. Supply Chain Management: Apple will need to establish a reliable supply chain to manufacture and deliver the modems in large quantities.

Timeline and Implications

Apple's in-house modem is expected to debut in 2025, starting with niche iPhone models. However, widespread adoption across all iPhone models may take several years. This development will have significant implications for:

1. Qualcomm: The loss of Apple's business will likely impact Qualcomm's revenue and market share.

2. Competitors: Other smartphone manufacturers may follow Apple's lead, leading to a shift in the modem market landscape.

3. 5G Advancements: Apple's in-house modem could accelerate the development and adoption of 5G technology, driving innovation in areas like IoT, AR, and more.

Overall, Apple's decision to develop its own in-house modem marks a significant milestone in the company's pursuit of self-reliance. While challenges lie ahead, the potential benefits of enhanced performance, reduced dependence, and fostered innovation make this a strategic move worth undertaking.

On the other side, Qualcomm might face increased pressure to innovate and offer more competitive products to retain its market position.

Top Image – Neway.mobi

Qualcomm Unveils Breakthrough in Wi-Fi Tech and New AI-Ready IoT and Industrial Platforms

At the Embedded World 2024 exhibition and conference in Nuremberg, Qualcomm made significant announcements related to IoT and Wi-Fi Technology.

The company unveils the Qualcomm® QCC730, a disruptive micro-power Wi-Fi system for IoT connectivity. This technological breakthrough provides up to 88% lower power than previous generations and can revolutionize products in battery powered industrial, commercial and consumer applications.

Qualcomm also introduced the new Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform — a comprehensive hardware and software solution designed for IoT and embedded applications. Utilizing the Qualcomm® QCS6490 processor, the RB3 Gen 2 offers a combination of high-performance processing, 10x increase in on-device AI processing, support for quadruple 8MP+ camera sensors, computer vision, and integrated Wi-Fi 6E.

The two technologies unveiled are —

1. Breakthrough Wi-Fi Technology

The Qualcomm QCC730 is a groundbreaking micro-power Wi-Fi system tailored for IoT connectivity. Here are its key features:

Unprecedented Low Power Consumption for Extended Battery Life

• The QCC730 delivers up to 88% lower power consumption compared to previous generations, potentially revolutionizing battery-powered industrial, commercial, and consumer applications. 
• Its selectable power modes and innovative power management maximize savings for extremely long battery life.

Flexibility to Operate in Hostless or Hosted Mode

• Developers can choose between hostless or hosted mode, providing extreme flexibility for different use cases.
• It supports internal or external power amplifiers and has integrated, non-volatile memory (RRAM) for ease of design.

Versatile System Integration for Ease of Design

• QCC730 fully integrates the on-chip microcontroller, non-volatile memory (NVM), and SRAM, making it versatile and easy to design with.
• Developers can replace or integrate it with traditionally Bluetooth-only applications.

Complete Cloud Connectivity Stack with Open-Source Software SDK:

QCC730 comes with an open-source software SDK available on CodeLinaro, allowing cloud connectivity offloading.

It empowers developers with an alternative to traditionally Bluetooth-only applications and enables direct cloud connectivity.

In summary, the Qualcomm QCC730 offers ultra-low micro-power Wi-Fi, scalability, and versatility for IoT applications, making it a powerful choice for connected devices.

2. AI Ready IoT & Industrial Platform

The Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform is designed to empower developers in creating a broad range of IoT products across various segments, including consumer, enterprise, industrial robotics, and automation.

High-Performance Processing

• The RB3 Gen 2 Platform is powered by the Qualcomm QCS6490 processor, offering advanced performance capabilities.
• It combines powerful AI processing, computer vision, and blazing-fast wireless connectivity.

On-Device AI Capabilities

• Developers can leverage the platform's AI acceleration for tasks such as image and video capture, enhancing overall functionality.
• This opens up possibilities for applications in workplace security, automation, and more.

Support for Multiple Camera Sensors

• The platform supports multiple 8MP+ camera sensors, enabling robust computer vision capabilities.
• This feature is essential for applications in robotics, industrial automation, and other visual tasks.

Integrated Wi-Fi 6E

• With built-in Wi-Fi 6E, the RB3 Gen 2 Platform ensures high-speed wireless connectivity.
• This connectivity is crucial for seamless communication in IoT devices.

Bluetooth 5.2 and LE Audio

• Enhanced Bluetooth 5.2 support allows for wireless accessories and efficient communication.
• LE Audio ensures improved audio quality for connected devices.

Expandability and Versatility

• The platform offers expandability through interfaces such as GPIOs, I2C, SPI, UART, PCIe, USB, MIPI CSI/DSI, and SDIO.
• Developers can easily integrate additional components and customize their solutions.

In summary, the Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform provides a powerful foundation for creating innovative IoT products, combining performance, AI capabilities, and connectivity. 

Qualcomm Ventures Invests ₹ 730 Crore in Jio Platforms for 0.15% Equity Stake

Reliance Industries Limited (“Reliance Industries”) and Jio Platforms Limited (“Jio Platforms”), announced yesterday that Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated, an industry leader in wireless technologies, has committed to invest upto ₹ 730 crore in Jio Platforms at an equity value of ₹ 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of ₹ 5.16 lakh crore. Qualcomm Ventures’ investment will translate into 0.15% equity stake in Jio Platforms on a fully diluted basis. The investment will deepen the ties between Qualcomm and Jio Platforms, to support Jio Platforms on its journey to rollout advanced 5G infrastructure and services for Indian customers.

Jio Platforms, a majority-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is a next-generation technology platform focused on providing high-quality and affordable digital services across India, with more than 388 million subscribers. Jio Platforms has made significant investments across its digital ecosystem, powered by leading technologies spanning broadband connectivity, smart devices, cloud and edge computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, augmented and mixed reality and blockchain. Jio’s vision is to enable a Digital India for 1.3 billion people and businesses across the country, including small merchants, micro-businesses and farmers so that all of them can enjoy the fruits of inclusive growth.

Qualcomm is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator and the driving force behind the development, launch and expansion of 5G. With more than $62 billion in cumulative research and development spend, 35 years of innovation and over 140,000 patents and patent applications, Qualcomm is committed to fueling innovation and fostering Indian technology advancement. Qualcomm Ventures is a global fund that invests in pioneering companies across the wireless ecosystem in areas like 5G, AI, IoT, automotive, networking and enterprise. In India, Qualcomm Ventures has invested in companies that address key domestic issues from Dairy, Transportation to Defense, and build world class products for India and the world market.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries said, “Today, I am delighted to welcome Qualcomm Ventures as an investor in Jio Platforms. Qualcomm has been a valued partner for several years and we have a shared vision of connecting everything by building a robust and secure wireless and digital network and extending the benefits of digital connectivity to everyone in India. As a world leader in wireless technologies, Qualcomm offers deep technology knowhow and insights that will help us deliver on our 5G vision and the digital transformation of India for both people and enterprises.”

Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated, said, “With our shared goal of extending the benefits of digital connectivity to everyone and everything, we anticipate Jio Platforms will deliver a new set of services and experiences to Indian consumers. With unmatched speeds and emerging use cases, 5G is expected to transform every industry in the coming years. Jio Platforms has led the digital revolution in India through its extensive digital and technological capabilities. As an enabler and investor with a longstanding presence in India, we look forward to playing a role in Jio's vision to further revolutionize India’s digital economy.”

The transaction is subject to customary conditions precedent.

Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Reliance Industries and AZB & Partners and Davis Polk & Wardwell acted as legal counsels. Trilegal acted as legal counsel for Qualcomm Ventures.

L&T Technology Services joins Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program to provide Smart City solutions to OEMs and System Integrators

L&T Technology Services Limited (BSE: 540115, NSE: LTTS), a leading global pure play engineering services company, announced it has joined the Qualcomm® Smart Cities Accelerator Program from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to collaborate on providing smart ecosystem solutions and services to help global enterprises accelerate the digital transformation to smart urban infrastructure.

LTTS has strong expertise in Smart Ecosystems - smart cities, smart warehousing and smart manufacturing solutions. Together with Qualcomm Technologies’ global technology leadership in edge compute capability, cutting-edge processors and wide-area and local-area communications technologies, LTTS can offer a portfolio of digital offerings to address energy conservation, operational efficiency and digital transformation to cities, making them smarter and more sustainable.

The Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program is a community matchmaking program that brings together smart solutions providers like LTTS with municipalities or systems integrators looking to solve problems. This can help drive additional value and integrate solutions with secure interoperability, edge processing and an ecosystem to deploy at scale.

Some of the Smart solutions deployed by LTTS include the world’s smartest office campus powered by i-BEMS, (LTTS’ smart campus experience framework), the world’s first commercial network for grids and cutting-edge electric and hybrid solutions for a sustainable transport network.

Stawan Kadepurkar, Chief Business Officer at L&T Technology Services said, “LTTS brings considerable experience in incubating state-of-the-art technology and delivering efficiency through smart infrastructure solutions. Rapid urbanization has given rise to traffic congestion, high energy consumption and inefficient waste management schemes. As such, the need of the hour is to drive disruptive technology by innovative and intuitive offerings, streamlining day-to-day management, improving efficiency and increasing sustainability. We are delighted to join the Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program to drive the global innovative solutions ecosystem for smart cities.”

Sanjeet Pandit, Senior Director, Business Development and Head of Smart Cities, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., said, “L&T Technology Services has an excellent track record of designing and developing solutions that solve modern smart cities problems. We are excited to bring LTTS into our Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program to help drive this large-scale transformation of modern cities to smart, sustainable and eco-friendly landscapes.”
About L&T Technology Services Ltd

L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) is a listed subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Limited focused on Engineering and R&D (ER&D) services. We offer consultancy, design, development and testing services across the product and process development life cycle. Our customer base includes 69 Fortune 500 companies and 51 of the world’s top ER&D companies, across industrial products, medical devices, transportation, telecom & hi-tech, and the process industries. Headquartered in India, we have over 16,700 employees spread across 17 global design centers, 28 global sales offices and 50 innovation labs as of December 31, 2019.

4G will Continue to Remain Relevant for Quite Sometime: Qualcomm

US-based Qualcomm on Tuesday said 4G will continue to be relevant over the next few years and unveiled a new lineup of mobile chipsets for 4G smartphones in the country.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460 promise to offer enhanced user experiences across connectivity, gaming and entertainment.

"While we see a fast adoption of 5G across geographies globally, we do recognise the phenomenal boost that 4G has given towards enabling broadband connectivity for Indian consumers. 4G will stay relevant for quite sometime," Rajen Vagadia, vice-president and president, Qualcomm India, said.

He added that for regions like India, 4G will stay a key technology for connectivity.

"Our goal is to enable our partners to continue creating solutions that offer seamless connectivity access and exceptional mobile experiences," he said.

Asked about 5G, Vagadia said smartphones powered by the latest technology should make their way into the Indian market in the first half of this year.

While these smartphones are expected to be available in the mid and premium range, they would become more affordable as they get more affordable, he said adding that roll out of 5G networks would also be an important factor.

The new chipsets unveiled on Tuesday - which will be deployed by handset makers on smartphones across various price points - are designed to enable fast 4G connectivity speeds, deliver key Wi-Fi 6 features and integrated Bluetooth 5.1 with advanced audio via the Qualcomm FastConnect 6-series subsystems and support Dual-Frequency (L1 and L5) GNSS to improve location positioning accuracy and robustness.

These are also the first system-on-chip solutions to support Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC).

Developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), NavIC is the Indian version of GPS. Apart from popular GPS, there are other satellite navigation systems like GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou.

Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi and Realme said they will soon launch devices with NavIC support, based on these new Snapdragon chipsets.

"The availability of NavIC across multiple mobile platforms will help enhance the geolocation capabilities of smartphones in the region and bring the benefits of this indigenous solution to Indian consumers for their day-to-day use," ISRO Chairman K Sivan said. PTI SR

Tech Mahindra partners Qualcomm Technologies for smart city solutions

New Delhi, Aug 23 (PTI) IT company Tech Mahindra on Friday announced collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc to offer solutions for smart cities across the globe.

Under the partnership Tech Mahindra will integrate solutions from members of Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program.

"We are excited to partner with Qualcomm Technologies as part of their 'Smart City Accelerator Program' to ensure the development and deployment of cutting edge smart cities solutions globally," Tech Mahindra President Communications Business Manish Vyas said in a statement.

The Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program members represent a breadth of hardware and software providers, cloud solution providers, system integrators, design and manufacturing companies, as well as companies offering end-to-end solutions with smart cities in mind, the statement said.

"The Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator Program provides a central hub for smart cities solutions across regions and verticals, and we are pleased to see Tech Mahindra participate as the leading system integrator in our program," Sanjeet Pandit, senior director of business development and head of smart cities, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc said. PTI PRS

Tagbox Solutions and Steradian Semiconductors Raise $75K Each in 'Qualcomm Design in India Challenge II'

Qualcomm Incorporated today announced the top two winners from Cycle I of its Qualcomm Design in India Challenge II (QDIC II) at India Mobile Congress being held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. Since the beginning of 2017, eight shortlisted companies were incubated with initial prize money of USD 10,000 each and engineering support at Qualcomm India’s Innovation Labs in Bangalore and Hyderabad, wherein they could transform their ideas into prototypes. In the final round, the companies were judged by the jury members consisting of Industry, Government and Qualcomm executives. Two companies were awarded USD 75,000 each as the winners of the Challenge in Cycle I.

The winners of the Cycle I of QDIC II are:

• Tagbox Solutions Private Limited - Concept - An ultra-low power wireless platform targeted towards improving efficiency of Cold Storage and Logistics by monitoring and controlling key health parameters like temperature, relative humidity, gas, energy, door activity, etc.
• Steradian Semiconductors Private Limited - Concept - Build a High Resolution 4D Radar that will enable true all-weather vision for Autonomous Vehicles and Drones.

Speaking on the occasion, Alex Rogers, executive vice president and president of Qualcomm Technology Licensing, said, “Since its beginning, Qualcomm’s strength has been constant innovation. Qualcomm Design in India Challenge provides a platform for cutting-edge technology entrepreneurs to showcase their talent and creative ideas. Qualcomm takes immense pleasure in announcing the two winners, who have created innovative solutions that address the needs and challenges of today. We look forward to offering our continued support to these winners, and the Government’s “Design in India”objectivein helping innovative start-ups take their ideas from concept to market.”

Launched in 2016, in association with National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), QDIC encourages product companies to create innovative hardware product designs incorporating Qualcomm® technologies and platforms.In January 2017, Qualcomm announced an investment of USD 8.5 million for expansion of its design initiatives in India through the ‘Qualcomm Design in India Program’ (QDIP),which includes the QDIC as well as additional initiatives such as Qualcomm Innovation Labs at Hyderabad and Bangalore to enable Indian mobile and IoT vendors in advanced design activities requiringCamera, Audio, and RF tuning.

Upon successful completion of QDIC I in January 2017 involving incubation of ten finalists selected from over 400 aspirants, Qualcomm announced commencement of its QDIC II program. QDIC II has been implemented in two cycles, which involves incubation of a total of fourteen finalists (eight from Cycle I and six from Cycle II) selected from over 150 applications. In total, after the completion of QDIC II in early 2018, Qualcomm will have incubated 24 product companies over two years. The registrations for the second cycle of QDIC II opened in July. Qualcomm also announced the top six finalists for the second cycle of QDIC II.

• iClimb Systems India Pvt. Ltd.
• Intuvision Labs Private Limited
• Gaia Smart Cities Solutions Private Limited
• Lightmetrics Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
• Sensara Technologies India Private Limited
• Ayasta Technologies Private Limited

These six finalists will be incubated in Qualcomm Innovation Labs, and the final two winners will each receive a prize money of USD $75,000 at the end of the incubation period in January 2018.

Qualcomm's Mobile Chip Deep Learning Framework Is Now Open To All

American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company, Qualcomm, gave birth to the Neural Processing Engine (NPE) for its Snapdragon-series mobile processors with an aim of enabling deep learning-based software development on all kinds of devices. And now, the company, which is considered as a world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies, has made the NPE software development kit finally available to the world via its Qualcomm Developer Network.

The latest development marks the first public release of the SDK. According to tech experts, the kit can open a lot of great opportunities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing on a range of devices, right from mobile phones to in-car platforms and many more. This means, it could serve as a key to unlock a whole new world altogether.

By making the NPE kit available to public, Qualcomm hopes that humans will be able to achieve UX implementations like style transfers and filters with more accurate applications on user photographs, as well allow other functions like scene detection, facial recognition, object tracking and avoidance, as well as natural language processing to be better administered by deep learning algorithms. Basically, the kit would allow people to do anything that they normally do by taking the road of powerful cloud servers for advanced process, to be done locally right on their choice of device instead.

Qualcomm’s Neural Processing Engine functions smoothly with the Snapdragon 600 and 800 series processor platforms, and even boosts of supporting a range of common deep learning frameworks including the famous one like Caffe2 and Tensorflow.

Social networking giant Facebook is said to be one of the first ones to have landed its hand on Qualcomm’s NPE, and the Mark Zuckerberg led firm claims to be already registering a 5X improvements in the performance of its AR features on images and live video, when it is employing Qualcomm’s Adreno GPUs on Snapdragon SoCs. This gives us a glowing testimonial of Qualcomm’s NPE performance and quality.

Considering the fact that a lot of tech giants are now contemplating moving their AI-based computing functions from remote servers to local platforms so as to improve reliability and cut down on network connectivity requirements, Qualcomm can emerge as a big winner in this trend.