Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform, what the company calls a next-generation chip for wearables and other smart devices.
The 3100 is built on an ultra low-power hierarchy to conserve battery life. It relies on an eight-core bank of low-power A7 processors with an integrated DSP, and a battery-saving co-processor to ensure that the wearable runs smoothly while maximizing battery life. Qualcomm says the A7s are meant to deliver low-power operation while handling complex audio, video, and sensory experiences and drawing the minimum amount of power needed.
The co-processor, called the QCC1110, handles audio, sensors, and the display separately from the main CPU. It includes its own AI engine that can handle tasks such as keyword detection. Qualcomm says the Snapdragon Wear 3100 will operate in three new operational modes: Enhanced Ambient Mode, Dedicated Sports Experiences, and Traditional Watch Mode. The first ensures that the watch will supply real-time notifications as warranted, rich notifications, and smooth animations. The second ensures the watch will be a better companion when it comes to tracking sports and fitness activities with auto-detection. The last ensures that the platform will deliver an exceptional watch experience for an extended period of time if needed.
Qualcomm says this Traditional Watch Mode will continue to support GPS/location batching, per minute/second clock updates, sensors processing, MP3 playback, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth voice queries. The 3100 includes a new wearable power management sub-system, the PMW3100, to support lower power and higher integration.
The PMW3100 can handle next-generation sensor processing. The SoC also includes a LTE 4G modem with new high-performance Gallium Arsenide power amplifiers to increase power efficiency. The Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform comes in three variants targeting Bluetooth and Wi-Fi-based smartwatches, GPS-based smartwatches, and 4G LTE smartwatches.
Qualcomm says Fossil Group, Louis Vuitton, and Montblanc are among the first customers to launch products based on the Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform.
