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Kaak chestaa, bako dhyaanam, shwaana nidraa tathaiva cha. Alpaahari, griha tyagi, vidyarthi pancha lakshanam.
This is an old Sanskrit adage on 5 characteristics to achieve success.
- Persistence of a crow (there a story about the crow that keeps piling up stones in a jar to raise the water level when it is thirsty)
- Perseverance of a crane (waiting for the right opportunity).
- Ever Ready like a dog, which is a light sleeper and wakes up at the slightest activity
- Light eater - should consume minimum energy
- Adaptable and Flexible
The Wearable systems need to have all these characteristics and the IOT platform needs to support these from a system perspective.
Key components being a controller, memory, RF connectivity and sensors. Let us look at the wearables and their nature -
Now let us zoom in to the key components based on the form factor of these devices. All the key components need to be fit in a very limited space. These devices inherently need to be operate on battery and last days, weeks or months.
An IOT platform for a wearable device is the backbone and needs to address low power compute capability, low power connectivity, low leakage and low power storage, low power sensor and a lean client and a secure server over the cloud.
From a process perspective a 14nm/ 16nm FinFET, 22nm/ 28nm FD SOI or 40nm that supports Ultra low power, Ultra low leakage, embedded flash and power management would be an ideal solution. The major foundries Intel, TSMC, Samsung, Globalfoundries and UMC have all rolled their dice. However, these processes do not offer several of the key components like memory, RF and sensors.
40nm seems like a sweet spot today ----
(i) the CMOS Image Sensors are being designed in this process, and the ISPs can be integrated.
(ii) Audio Codecs and Amplifiers may be integrated into the same technology.
(iii) Fuel gauge, Battery management, Security algorithms and Power management can be integrated.
(iv) Word on the street is that major foundries and IDMs have begun sampling eNVM. SONOS and Floating Gate solutions are being developed in 40nm and perhaps other proprietary technologies too.
Even though analog does not scale, integration of digital functionality can make a good justification for a move into this technology.
Fabless companies and IDMs have released their platforms e.g NXP (Freescale) - JENNET, ST Micro (STM32), Qualcomm (Xively), Mediatek (Artik), Dialog (Atmel)-SAM series, Broadcom - WICED and Marvell. Majority of these use ARM Cortex M or A class processors and some have adopted MIPS as well.
There are a multitude of software platforms each differing in functionality, protocols, scalability, security, adaptability.
So the choice is driven by application and the consortium driving the adoption. Alljoyn, OTivity, Thread, Brillo seem to be leading. Innovation around these applications can be seen in some of the successfully funded companies on Kickstarter (a crowdfunding site)
There will be more to follow, I am sure with Samsung's announcement of their 28nm FD SOI readiness.
This is an old Sanskrit adage on 5 characteristics to achieve success.
- Persistence of a Kaak, the crow - keeps polling for data
- Perseverance of a Baka, the crane, keeps an eye open to watch out for the fish.
- Light sleeper like a Shwan, the dog - wakes up on activity
- Light eater - Alpaahari - c0nsumes less energy
- Willingness to move and adapt, grihatyagi - always on the move and flexible
- Persistence of a crow (there a story about the crow that keeps piling up stones in a jar to raise the water level when it is thirsty)
- Perseverance of a crane (waiting for the right opportunity).
- Ever Ready like a dog, which is a light sleeper and wakes up at the slightest activity
- Light eater - should consume minimum energy
- Adaptable and Flexible
The Wearable systems need to have all these characteristics and the IOT platform needs to support these from a system perspective.
Key components being a controller, memory, RF connectivity and sensors. Let us look at the wearables and their nature -
- Smart/ Sports Watch (worn on the wrist),
- Fitness device (worn on the wrist, arm, waist, hip, ear?),
- VR devices/ displays (head mounted),
- Smart Clothing (worn on the body),
- Smart Jewelery (worn on the wrist, finger, neck, ear, arm etc),
- Implantables (ingested, injected, imprinted or surgically implanted) and more...
Now let us zoom in to the key components based on the form factor of these devices. All the key components need to be fit in a very limited space. These devices inherently need to be operate on battery and last days, weeks or months.
An IOT platform for a wearable device is the backbone and needs to address low power compute capability, low power connectivity, low leakage and low power storage, low power sensor and a lean client and a secure server over the cloud.
From a process perspective a 14nm/ 16nm FinFET, 22nm/ 28nm FD SOI or 40nm that supports Ultra low power, Ultra low leakage, embedded flash and power management would be an ideal solution. The major foundries Intel, TSMC, Samsung, Globalfoundries and UMC have all rolled their dice. However, these processes do not offer several of the key components like memory, RF and sensors.
40nm seems like a sweet spot today ----
(i) the CMOS Image Sensors are being designed in this process, and the ISPs can be integrated.
(ii) Audio Codecs and Amplifiers may be integrated into the same technology.
(iii) Fuel gauge, Battery management, Security algorithms and Power management can be integrated.
(iv) Word on the street is that major foundries and IDMs have begun sampling eNVM. SONOS and Floating Gate solutions are being developed in 40nm and perhaps other proprietary technologies too.
Even though analog does not scale, integration of digital functionality can make a good justification for a move into this technology.
Fabless companies and IDMs have released their platforms e.g NXP (Freescale) - JENNET, ST Micro (STM32), Qualcomm (Xively), Mediatek (Artik), Dialog (Atmel)-SAM series, Broadcom - WICED and Marvell. Majority of these use ARM Cortex M or A class processors and some have adopted MIPS as well.
There are a multitude of software platforms each differing in functionality, protocols, scalability, security, adaptability.
So the choice is driven by application and the consortium driving the adoption. Alljoyn, OTivity, Thread, Brillo seem to be leading. Innovation around these applications can be seen in some of the successfully funded companies on Kickstarter (a crowdfunding site)
- "AMPY" is wearable battery that transforms the energy from your motion into power for your devices.
- MetaWear is a tiny ARM+Bluetooth LE Platform for developing Wearable Sensor products that are certified and ready for quick prototyping.
- KYMIRA Sport products: proven to harness your wasted energy and convert it to Infrared to enhance performance, wellbeing and recovery.
- Atomwear renamed to Vigekwear since 2015-10-20 is a micro, modularized, open source, wearable BLE device for DIYers. It makes any BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) projects easier.
There will be more to follow, I am sure with Samsung's announcement of their 28nm FD SOI readiness.
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