Qualcomm outs Snapdragon Wear 1200 platform for wearable devices

Qualcomm at MWC 2017, Shanghai introduced its latest processor for the wearable segment – the Snapdragon Wear 1200. The chip is designed for ultra-low power, highly energy efficient, always connected, and affordable wearable devices, fitness bands and activity trackers for kids, elderly, pets and more.

The Snapdragon Wear 1200 packs features like longer battery life, smarter sensing, constant location, robust security, and an always connected experience with comprehensive coverage into a 79mm sized wearable chip, 45 percent smaller than its predecessor, Snapdragon Wear 1100.

It comes with LTE categories M1 and NB1 connectivity, that allows low-power wearable device to connect to 4G network, while using less power.  There's also flexibility to add a range of external sensor hubs, and a global multi-mode M1/NB1/E-GPRS modem with support for 15 global RF bands, pre-certified for major global operators.

Location features supported are GPS, GLONASS, Gallileo and BeiDou constellations, low power geofencing and Qualcomm's cloud based location services with comprehensive global terrestrial positioning using WiFi and cellular service.

The wearable chip also features an integrated applications processor for Linux and ThreadX based applications and is scalable to support voice over LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. For privacy and security it has integrated hardware-based features like Qualcomm Secure Execution Environment, a hardware cryptographic engine, hardware random number generator and TrustZone.

Qualcomm has also worked with ODMs (original design manufacturers) like Boeqs and Quanta to develop reference design platforms based on Snapdragon Wear 2100, that can be worn by kids, senior citizens  or pets. These come with geofencing feature  that uses GPS to create virtual geographic boundry and trigger a response when you pet or kid leaves a particular area.

Snapdragon Wear 1200 is commercially available and shipping today.