Smart watch SoC has dual MIPS cores

The development kit, Newton2, integrates the application processor, eMCP memory, power management controller, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth (4.1), 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer, and seven micro connectors on the back for peripherals including: display, audio and camera. Stand-by consumption is under 3mW, half that of its predecessor.

“Ingenic Newton2 incorporates proven components reducing risk. Additionally, the board runs the latest version of the Android and Linux operating systems,” said MIPS.

The M200 application processor has two different MIPS cores, one running at 1.2GHz tackles most of the heavy lifting, while a 300MHz MIPS saves power by handling less demanding tasks. They share 512kbyte if L2 cache.

At full tilt, consumption is 150mW.

“M200 includes special fabric that creates multiple low power modes of operation and distinct power islands; these islands can also be switched on by special programmable triggers; voice activation for example,” said a spokesman for MIPS. Voice trigger is a separate hardward block alongside the processing cores on the SoC.

Also on-die is a 3D graphics engine (OpenGL ES 2.0) and a separate multi-standard video engine (including H.264 and VP8 (720p, 30 fps)).

The display controller supports both LCD and E Ink – both of which are implemented on the Geek 2 smart watch, so it is possible this chip is inside that watch.

For camera vision, there is an image processor that implements: dual-stream processing, image stabilisation (video and still), image cropping, image scaling, auto exposure, auto focus, noise reduction, and colour correction.

There are also flash and DRAM (up to 667Mbit/s) controllers, and a host of serial interfaces including USB OTG.

Applications are expected in: infotainment: smartwatches, augmented reality headsets, smart glasses, smart cameras, wearable healthcare monitors, fitness bands, activity trackers, smart clothing, and sleep sensors.