Today Qualcomm is making an enormous step ahead in its smartwatch SoC choices by introducing the brand-new Snapdragon Wear 4100 and Wear 4100+ platforms. The new chips succeed the growing older two 2018 originating Wear 3100 platforms and considerably upgrading the {hardware} specs, bringing to the desk all new IPs for CPU, GPU and DSPs, all manufactured on a more moderen decrease energy course of node.
Smartwatch merchandise over the previous couple of years had at all times one massive criticism to them, and that was the truth that the SoCs powering them had been at all times seemingly underpowered in comparison with what we’re seeing from the like of vertically built-in distributors resembling Apple and their very own smartwatch SoCs. Qualcomm’s new Wear 4100 SoC now lastly abandons the Cortex-A7 cores and 28nm course of in favour of Cortex-A53 cores and a 12nm course of – while definitely not bleeding edge, it’s an enormous bounce in efficiency and energy effectivity.
The new SoC is an entire overhaul when it comes to design. As talked about, as an alternative of the quad-core A7 cores at 1.1GHz, the brand new chip now options quad A53 cores at as much as 1.7GHz. The chip nonetheless depends on LPDDR3 as its reminiscence know-how however the clock charges have been upped from 400MHz to 750Mhz. The GPU has seen an enormous leap in efficiency because it sees the bounce of two architectural generations from an Adreno 304 to a brand new Adreno 504. The chipset additionally seen its DSP capabilities expanded because it now contains a second devoted audio DSP for precise software aspect processing (Alongside the modem DSP) that beforehand didn’t exist on the Wear 3100 chip.
An fascinating addition to the SoC is a second ISP. The new chip is ready to now deal with twin 16MP cameras – a few of Qualcomm’s clients have concepts for smartwatch merchandise which might deploy two cameras.
The fundamental SoC is now manufactured on a more moderen 12nm course of node at TSMC – it’s definitely not the most recent node given a brand new platform like this, however Qualcomm most likely made their cost-performance calculations when selecting this design side.
Connectivity smart, the chip nonetheless employs a LTE class four modem with as much as 150Mbps down and 50Mbps up speeds, however the brand new RF system consists of optimisations for energy utilization, resembling the brand new addition of eDRX (Extended discontinuous reception) for a lot better energy effectivity. Bluetooth connectivity has been upgraded to the 5.zero customary.
Qualcomm continues to make use of a fundamental SoC + co-processor structure for its smartwatch platforms. The aforementioned Wear 4100 serves as the principle processor chip throughout lively and interactive utilization of the system, while a secondary co-processor serves because the always-on silicon that is ready to allow ambient non-interactive system use-cases (Essentially, powering on the display screen with static / low-updating data).
The co-processor has the same design to the QCC1110 that was bundled with the Wear 3100 platform, however has been enhanced when it comes to a few of its capabilities resembling having richer color depth rendering potential for as much as 16 bit (64Okay colors).
The key side for utilizing each a fundamental SoC and a co-processor in the identical system is the twin show structure of the system, the place the show is linked to each chip and might obtain indicators from each. The purpose for Qualcomm to not have applied a single monolithic chip is rationalised by design efforts and cost-opportunity; whereas they haven’t introduced any merchandise but, they envision the likelihood to make use of the QCC1110 as a standalone system in a tool, and likewise, one can use the Wear 4100 with out a co-processor.
The co-processor can function the sensor hub amassing knowledge out of your typical smartwatch sensors, all while the principle SoC is powered off.
The general enhancements of the platforms carry a -20% lower in energy utilization, all…
