The News: Accelerating Intelligent Edge and AI capabilities and adoption for enterprises is the goal of a new collaboration between Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Arrow Electronics. Expanding their past collaborations, Arrow is creating a new Arrow Center of Excellence (CoE) called Edge Labs that aims to help customers develop new generations of connected intelligent edge devices using Qualcomm processors, platforms and expertise. Read the full Press Release about the new CoE on the Qualcomm website.

Intelligent Edge is Boosted as Qualcomm, Arrow Collaborate

Analyst Take: Intelligent Edge uses are growing exponentially today and this new Edge Labs Center of Excellence by Arrow and Qualcomm is perfectly timed to help meet the soaring demands from manufacturers and users of Edge IoT and AI devices.

This is a smart move for these two tech partners to address because, by bringing together their technologies and knowledge, they will be in just the right position to help increase the adoption of Edge AI across a wide range of IoT applications and use cases.

Qualcomm and Arrow have collaborated in the past on other efforts, but this time the goal is to help device makers accelerate the development of connected intelligent edge devices that integrate Qualcomm components and technologies.

As Edge computing continues to gain more attention in the next few years by IoT and AI device makers, I believe this market will be one of the biggest hot spots in tech. This will happen as the technology inspires powerful new possibilities for enterprise users, consumers and supporting industries such as the cloud and 5G network operators. I think we are only now seeing a mere glimpse of what could come out of this mix of technologies, and using the word “revolutionary” may not overstate its importance.

I am a big fan of the Centers of Excellence approach to diving in, focusing, developing, and harnessing new tech ideas because it allows the right experts to be brought in to collaborate on big projects with common goals. Arrow’s use of CoEs in general and for this work, in particular, shows me that both Arrow and Qualcomm are committing to what is needed to bring it all to fruition in the future. That is a formula for true success in my mind.

Intelligent Edge Partnership Reveals First Product Demo

Qualcomm and Arrow recently launched and demonstrated their first product to come out of their new Edge Labs partnership, the Aikri 42x chip, which is based on the Qualcomm QRB4210 System on Chip (SoC). The new Aikri 42x chip, which was created by Arrow’s eInfoChips division, was demonstrated at the Embedded World conference in Germany. eInfoChips specializes in IoT, AI/ML, security, sensors, silicon, wireless, and cloud.

Under the CoE for this project, the Edge Labs organization will have its own solution architecting and engineering team that will work to develop application-specific products using Qualcomm technologies. This will include training sales and field application engineers who know Qualcomm’s products, as well as design services that will help eInfoChips get its products out more quickly to customers.

Making Intelligent Edge Easier for Enterprises

One of the major challenges with Edge and AI product development is that it is still difficult to do. There are many reasons for this, including a lack of experience with the still-nascent technologies, supply chain complexity which limits access to high-performance Edge and AI chipsets, and a still-young ecosystem that makes finding the right products and services difficult. The Edge Labs CoE approach should help device makers better navigate these challenges so they can work to integrate Qualcomm Edge AI technologies in IoT devices for security, safety, healthcare, robotics, cameras, displays, optical inspections and other uses.

Intelligent Edge Overview

As Edge Computing and AI continue to take IoT devices to new heights of innovation and possibility, powerful technology partnerships like this one between Qualcomm and Arrow will be needed to make important contributions that lead to big successes.

I firmly believe that this is a beneficial development in this process that will help drive major progress in the Intelligent Edge market. Big kudos to Qualcomm and Arrow Electronics to taking this leadership role and working to move their Intelligent Edge efforts forward at full steam.

Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.

Other insights from Futurum Research:

Qualcomm Edge Broadens its IoT and Robotics Ecosystem

New Qualcomm AI Stack Powers the Connected Intelligent Edge

Qualcomm Sparks the Next Phase of 5G With the World’s First 5G Advanced-Ready Modem-RF System