Wearables and the Internet of Things are two of the hottest categories in technology right now. To capitalise on this trend, and perhaps to provide appropriate silicon for it, Qualcomm announced their wearable-specific range of processors last year with the Snapdragon Wear 2100. At Computex in Taipei today Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon Wear 1100, the second processor in the new line.
As you may have guessed the Wear 1100 is a more entry level processor than it’s 2100 sibling providing a lower cost option for wearables, and IoT devices, that focus on a more limited range of functions. Even at the entry level the Wear 1100 is able to support:
- Low power operation
- Intergrated Linix-ased application processor
- LTE/#G connectivity
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- iZat location services
As far as processor specs go that’s’ far from a complete list, we will have to wait for Qualcomm to update their Snapdragon Wear products page to find out the rest.
The Wear 1100 has been specifical design according to Qualcomm for the “fast growing targeted-purpose wearables segments such as connected kid and elderly watches, fitness trackers, smart headsets, and wearable accessories”, and to complement the Wear 2100 which targets the more “multi-purpose” wearables. In other words, this won’t be coming in any Android Wear watch you’d care to own but it may start showing up in all manner of other connected and wearable devices.
With the current trend of sticking a processor in everything and control it with an app, there is definitely a market for good SOCs at multiple levels of performance and cost. The Snapdragon Wear 1100 is available for manufacturers from today, so it may not be long before the first device powered by this little guy shows up.
