When it comes to Samsung's smart device chips, many friends may first think of Exynos 1080, Exynos2 100 for smart phones, and Exynos2200 with AMDRDNA2 optical tracking GPU. But in fact, compared with (at least so far) mobile phone SoC, Samsung's Exynos family has occupied an absolute leading position in technology and design in another field.
And this is Samsung's Exynos smart wearable device chip family.
How strong is Exynos' wearable chip? As early as 20 18, the mainstream Qualcomm Wear2500 adopted 32-bit Cortex-A7 architecture, and when the manufacturing process was 28nm, Samsung introduced a similar chip named Exynos9 1 10 in the same year.
Exynos9 1 10 adopts Samsung's own 10nm process, and the CPU is based on 64-bit Cortex-A53 architecture. And more importantly, compared with other wearable chips in the same period, because the architecture is too old, they have to use quad-core CPU design to improve performance. Samsung chose the idea of new architecture+dual-core, so it not only has good performance, but also has obvious power consumption advantages.
Therefore, at that time, all smart watches equipped with other wearable chips generally had a life performance of about one day, and some even failed to reach it. Samsung has adopted Exynos9 1 10 smart watch products, but its life can easily reach three days or even longer.
Please note that this is only the level of Samsung Exynos wearable chip three years ago. Because just recently, Samsung launched a new generation of wearable chips-Exynosw 920. When we compared ExynosW920 with the latest chip solutions of other smart watches on the market, we soon realized that Samsung had "killed" the competing products again this time.
First of all, in terms of basic technology and architecture, the latest wearable hardware platform on the market, Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear4 100, adopts 12nm technology, quad-core Cortex-A53CPU, single-channel LPDDR3 memory and Adreno504GPU. In all fairness, Snapdragon Wear4 100 is based on Snapdragon 400 with 20 13 and Snapdragon Wear2500/3100 with 20100.
However, in contrast, ExynosW920 uses 5nmEUV technology, Cortex-A55CPU, LPDDR4 memory, and Mali-G68GPU just released by ARM last year. In other words, ExynosW920 is at least two years ahead of its competitors in structure and technology.
But for ExynosW920, it was born without this trouble. On the one hand, because many advanced semiconductor processes are adopted, more energy-saving memory subsystems are equipped; On the other hand, ExynosW920 continues the design idea of the previous generation CPU. By using the new architecture CPU with higher energy efficiency ratio, the performance close to the rival quad-core can be achieved with only dual-core design, and the power consumption can be greatly reduced.
In fact, compared with the previous generation products, the CPU performance of ExynosW920 can reach 1.20% of the previous generation products, and the GPU performance can be directly improved to 1.000% of the previous generation products, which shows that the advanced architecture and technology are powerful.
ExynosW920 integrates Cortex-M55, which is three generations more advanced than Apollo4S chip architecture (Cortex-M4) used by OPPO.
Moreover, Samsung even designed a coprocessor core based on Cortex-M55 low-power architecture in ExynosW920. Its function is to "take over" the operation task from the main CPU when the smart watch is in the information screen display state. In this way, the smart watch based on ExynosW920 will achieve the same or even higher information screen computing performance as other auxiliary chips without built-in auxiliary chips, and at the same time, it can effectively simplify the design and further reduce the power consumption and cost of the product.
However, this is not over yet. In fact, ExynosW920 is not only extremely advanced in internal strength, but also adopts the latest Fan-out Panel Package (FO-PLP) to package SoC, memory, power management chip and eMMC flash memory into a whole chip. Compared with the traditional design of soldering different components to PCB, this package of ExynosW920 not only realizes shorter wiring and higher overall system performance, but also greatly saves the circuit board area of smart wearable devices. For smart watches and other devices, smaller circuit board area means more space can be used to accommodate batteries, thus further improving the endurance of the device.
Of course, from the consumer's point of view, we can expect ExynosW920 to help Samsung achieve amazing low power consumption and long battery life on its latest smart watch. At the same time, its extremely high GPU performance also means that it will be able to drive the smart watch display panel with much higher resolution than in the past, thus effectively improving the display fineness of smart watches, and even realizing some special high-resolution wearable device designs-such as a whole flexible screen around the wrist, which is obviously not impossible.
But from the perspective of industry observers, what we really want to know is why Samsung can actively adopt the latest technology, the latest architecture and the latest packaging methods to make its own wearable device chips, while other manufacturers can't.
Rl46 chip parameters
RL46 chip is a 32-bit ARMCortex-M0+ microcontroller with low power consumption and high performance introduced by Renesas Electronics Company. Its main parameters are as follows:
-CPU frequency: up to 48MHz
-Memory: 64KB flash memory, 8 KB RAM.
-Communication interfaces: SPI, I2C, UART and other interfaces.
-Timer: multiple 16-bit timers and PWM outputs.
-ADC: 12-bit ADC with a maximum sampling rate of 1Msps.
-Low power consumption: supports multiple power saving modes, and the standby current is less than 1uA.
RL46 chip can be widely used in smart home, smart wearable devices, industrial automation and other fields. In the past five years, wearable devices have flourished. In addition to specialized wearable device brands, mobile phone brands including Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO have also built their own wearable devices. Now smart watches have been given more functions, including motion detection, notification and reminding, listening to music and so on. As smart watches play an increasingly important role in users' lives, higher requirements are put forward for the endurance and performance of smart watches.
After Qualcomm introduced the wearable platforms of Snapdragon 2 100, 3 100, 4100+,it brought a brand-new wearable platform and adopted a brand-new naming method today. This is the first generation of Snapdragon W5/W5+ wearable platform, specially designed for the next generation of wearable devices.
Create lasting battery life
The first generation Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform adopts a hybrid architecture, including a 4-nanometer system-on-chip (SoC) and a 22-nanometer highly integrated always-on (AON) coprocessor. With the advantages of ultra-low power consumption, top performance and high integration, future wearable devices can be thinner and smaller.
The large and small cores of the first generation Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform can effectively allocate tasks. The large-core SoC is developed for WearOS and AOSP operating systems, and will undertake functions such as communication, LTE, modem and some Android applications, including camera and RF processing tasks. Based on FreeRTOS system, the coprocessor integrates more functions, including display, sports health sensor, audio processing and notification push.
The design of large and small cores can better control the power consumption problem, and common functions will be completed through the coprocessor to avoid extra power consumption waste. At the same time, the first generation of Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform has also joined the low-power Bluetooth architecture, and the Bluetooth 5.3 module is controlled by a low-power coprocessor, so the power consumption is lower when connecting.
In addition, the first generation Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform also integrated GPS, WiFi, audio and other modules into a low-power island.
These modules supply power separately. When users use GPS, our GPS module will be turned on and off when not in use, so as to avoid wasting power and minimize power consumption.
On this basis, Qualcomm also brought exclusive deep sleep and hibernation. In deep sleep mode, all Android-related content is stored in RAM, and the big core is in a power-off state. In this working mode, the power consumption can be well controlled. In addition, the content of Android system can enter sleep mode, in which the overall power consumption will be less than 0.5mA.
According to Qualcomm's internal test data, the endurance of the first generation Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform has increased by 50%, which can be said to be very obvious.
Strong performance brings more comprehensive functional support.
The first generation of Snapdragon W5/W5+ wearable platform also brought stronger performance. Take the first generation Snapdragon W5+ as an example, its SoC adopts 1.7GHz quad-core CortexA53 architecture, supports LPDDR4X memory, 1GHzGPU, and supports dual ISP camera design. The coprocessor adopts CortexM55 architecture, is equipped with 2.5DGPU, has HiFi5DSP, and integrates Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi modules.
At the same time, a U55 kernel for machine learning is integrated in the platform coprocessor, which performs sensor algorithm processing tasks. Based on the enhanced hybrid architecture, the fluency of subsequent smart wearable devices will be greatly improved.
Smart devices based on the first-generation Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform will have smooth video playing ability and two-way video calling function, and will also bring new experiences in 3D map navigation, real-time image recognition, interactive voice assistant and intelligent terminal control.
A number of enhanced functions have been added. Compared with the previous generation platform (Snapdragon 4 100+), the first generation Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform has 50% lower power consumption, twice as high performance, twice as high function and 30% smaller size, which provides a broader space for subsequent terminal manufacturers to build equipment.
The new platform equipment was officially unveiled in August.
Devices based on the first generation of Snapdragon W5/W5+ wearable platform will be unveiled in August, in which OPPO will refresh and launch smart watches based on Snapdragon W5 platform, while Mobvoi will launch Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform.
Li Kaixin, assistant vice president of OPPO and president of the Internet of Things business group, said: "The release of the new Snapdragon W5 wearable platform has raised smart wearable technology to a new height. OPPO has been working closely with Qualcomm Science and Technology Company for a long time, constantly creating possibilities for product innovation. OPPOWatch3 series will be released in August. As the first smart watch equipped with Snapdragon W5 wearable platform, it will be loved by users with better performance. "
Li Zhifei, CEO of Mobvoi Company, said: "In the past few years, Mobvoi and Qualcomm Technology Company jointly released a series of TicWatch smart watches equipped with Snapdragon wearable platform. Our team is very excited about the differentiated functions of Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform, and has worked closely with the team of Qualcomm Science and Technology Company to realize these innovations on our next-generation TicWatch flagship smart watch. We look forward to releasing the latest product this fall, which will also be the first smart watch product equipped with the first generation Snapdragon W5+ wearable platform. "
Qualcomm Science and Technology Company also released two reference designs jointly created by Compal Computer and Pegatron respectively, which demonstrated brand-new platform functions and cooperation with ecological partners to help customers speed up the product development process. The wearable devices to be launched next are still worth looking forward to.
Smart wearable devices need a GPS positioning module. What is the focus of choice?
The GPS module required by smart wearable devices must be small in size. In the case of smart wearable devices, the power consumption of the module must be as low as possible, and the tracking sensitivity of the module should be high. These aspects are the most important requirements of GPS module.
Incidentally, a wearable GPS module SKG08A with relatively stable performance.
Chip: MediaTek MT3339
Small size 9.0*8.5* 1.8 (mm)
Ultra-low power consumption, power consumption can be selected in three modes:
(1) Normal mode: full power consumption
(2) Healthy low power consumption mode: 20%~80% power consumption, turn off the standby CPU, and the tracking current is only 5mA, which can prolong the battery life by 2-3 times.
(3) Intelligent low power consumption mode: 20% power consumption, intermittent mode.
Ultra high sensitivity:-162dbm
Fast TTFF at low signal level
Built-in 12 multi-frequency active interference canceller
10ns high precision pulse (1pps)
Advanced features: always lazy; EPO easy
QZSS，SBAS(WAAS，EGNOS，MSAS，GAGAN)