The year of the wearable
2014 has been christened as the year of the wearable. Described as any technology that is either worn or used as an accessory, wearables encompass activity-tracking fitness bands through to intelligent eyewear.
With household names such as Sony, Google, Qualcomm, and Samsung leading the charge, not to mention Apple's rumoured bow into this field, wearables are fast becoming big business.
At their most basic form, a wearable - such as a smartwatch or activity tracker - uses a low-power processor allied to a Bluetooth or wireless controller. These processors need to be energy efficient, inexpensive and able to offer a reliable, always-connected user experience.
British company ARM®, with decades of experience in developing architectures for the mobile world, is ideally positioned to provide the computational backbone for these wearable devices. The ARM Cortex® series of processors offer unparalleled configuration and choice for designers of wearable products, and with a catalogue of cores that span the entire mobile spectrum with respect to energy efficiency or performance, the Cortex series remains the go-to choice for both entry-level and premium, feature-rich wearable devices.
Why ARM?
The ARM Cortex-M class of processors make implicit sense in smaller, simpler wearables such as activity-tracking fitness bands. The incredibly power-frugal architecture of these processors - the Cortex-M0+, for example, consumes just four microwatts for every MHz and, remember, a microwatt is one-millionth of a watt - ensures that battery life is maximised and onerous charging kept to a minimum. A number of Cortex-M processors are so small they fit into the dimple of a golf ball!
As computational power for wearables increases, typically for devices such as intelligent eyewear, the Cortex-A series is an ideal fit. With a proven history in powering the vast majority of the world's smartphones, ARM has class-leading know-how in designing architectures that maximise performance and efficiency.
The very fact that ARM has shipped over 50 billion processors to date - 10 billion in the last year alone - reinforces the British company's credentials as the driving force behind wearable technology. Want to power a new breed of wearables? Chances are that ARM has multiple processors capable of carrying out the behind-the-scenes computation and wireless data transfer.
More than just hardware
But developing interesting, eye-catching wearables is reliant on more than just great hardware. As the class leader in mobile technology, ARM has deep-seated relationships with multiple real-time operating systems (RTOS) and premium OSes such as Google Android.
A combination of great hardware and easy-to-program software is a clear boon for the ARM ecosystem. Time to market is one of the key concerns for wearable-technology manufacturers, so choosing the right platform is key. ARM, through its wide range of partners, offers a near-infinite choice of platforms for wearable-technology developers. Great choice paves the way for great wearables.
Building on the knowledge gained when designing mobile architectures for smartphones through to embedded controllers, ARM is very much at the forefront of wearable technology. The next time you pick up a wearable and marvel at how much technology can be packed into so small a space, think of ARM.
