Qualcomm’s new low-power Bluetooth-supporting SoCs mark just one of Qualcomm’s many ambitious projects on display at CES 2018. In particular, the QCC5100 series SoC looks forward to Qualcomm’s focus on wearables and the IoT, one of three key areas they’re aiming to market their chips in as of 2018.  

As Wired pointed out, Qualcomm is also preparing for 5G. There’s been a lot of talk about “future-proofing” lately — how do manufacturers and software developers keep their products not only relevant but cutting-edge functional in an age of rapid change? For the QCC5100 series, the answer is ultra-low power consumption (65 percent of previous Qualcomm SoCs) and the  the ability to swap smoothly between functions including a virtual assistant. 

The QCC5100 series also sets itself apart with a dedicated application processor sub-system, dual DSP architecture, ADK software and enhanced development tools. Enhancing the audio usage in particular is the audio noise cancelling (ANC) feature built into the SoC, which enables earbuds, hearables, or other wearables to be compete without an additional ANC chip. In order to be ready for integration with a personal assistant, the QCC5100 series also offers dedicated support for Always On voice applications.

Along with IoT, Qualcomm is also emphasizing at CES that it has its metaphorical fingers in the pie in the areas of connected cars and 5G mobile technologies. Qualcomm has also been in the news for both backing many Chinese companies, including Huawei, and bumping up against China’s laws against anticompetitive business practices.