Qualcomm just introduced Snapdragon Wear 3100, the company’s next generation smartwatch platform and the successor of Snapdragon Wear 2100 that was introduced back in 2016. This based on a new ultra-low power hierarchical system architecture. In this hierarchical architecture, the high-performance quad core A7 processor, the highly efficient integrated DSP, and the new ultra-low power co-processor work in conjunction with each other to fundamentally look to re-imagine smartwatch experiences – enhance existing ones, bring-in new ones – while supporting extended battery life.
It is available in both connected (4G LTE) and tethered (Bluetooth + Wi-Fi) versions. The new co-processor, the Qualcomm QCC1110 that has been designed from the ground up is incredibly small at ~21mm2, is optimized for ultra-low power operation, and acts as a powerful companion to the main processor, re-defining audio, display, and sensor experiences for next generation smartwatches. The co-processor also integrates a deep learning engine for custom workloads, such as keyword detection, and is extensible over time.
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- Rich Interactive Mode: In collaboration with Wear OS by Google it utilizes and enhances the capabilities of the platform and support increasingly rich, fluid experiences designed for the wrist.
- New Personalized Experiences Enhanced Ambient Mode – Combines the beauty of a Fashion
Watch with the power of a Smartwatch: Supports smooth
second hand, live complications, up to 16 colors, adaptive
brightness, and touch.
Dedicated Sports Experiences – Combines the battery life of
a Sports Watch with the richness of a Smartwatch: Go for an
ultra-marathon, swim long distances, or bike for miles with
GPS and active heart rate monitoring without worrying about
running down your battery.
Traditional Watch Mode – Combines the utility of an Analog
Watch with the flexibility of a Smartwatch: Utilizing only the
co-processor in an RTOS environment – allows you to continue
enjoying your watch for extended periods of time. - Support for Extended Battery Life: Supports up to 67% reduction in the lowest power mode, 49% reduction in GPS, 43% reduction in keyword detection, 35% reduction in per minute clock update, 34% reduction in MP3 playback, and 13% reduction in voice query over Wi-Fi or
Bluetooth compared to Snapdragon Wear 2100. Battery life day of use improvements ranging from 4 to 12 hours compared to Snapdragon Wear 2100, depending on display type, battery capacity, and device configurations. Personalized Sports Experiences are designed to go for up to 15 hours battery life (calculated based on a typical 450mAh sports watch battery), and Traditional Watch Mode supports week-long battery life.
Snapdragon Wear 3100 Platform (MSM8909w / APQ8009w) specifications
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- Up to 1.2GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex A7 processor
- QCC1110 co-processor designed from ground up design to support enhanced ambient, dedicated sports, and traditional watch modes/ experiences, Works alone or in conjunction with the main processor, Small footprint: ~21mm2, Cortex M0 processor running near threshold voltages, Integrates custom designed SRAM, dedicated PMU, a deep learning engine for custom
workloads, and range of I/Os, Runs highly efficient event-driven RTOS - Adreno 304 GPU: OpenGL ES 3.0, optimized power for wearables
- 400 MHz LPDDR3, eMMC 4.5, Supports range of configurations between
4×4 and 8×8 - Up to 640×480 display at 60fps, optimized for wearables, MIPI and SPI support
- Qualcomm Snapdragon X5 LTE modem with up to 1 Gbps download speed and up to 150 Mbps upload speed
- WCN3620 – Low power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, optimized for wearables, 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz), Qualcomm location technology, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 4.1 + Bluetooth Low Energy, Integrated NFC with support from NXP
- Qualcomm Noise and Echo Cancellation, Qualcomm Voice Suite, Qualcomm Voice Activation, Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec and speaker amplifier
- Gen 8C Satellite: Gen 8C Satellite: GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, Terrestrial: Wi-Fi, Cellular, PDR3.0 (GPS + Sensor fusion)
Qualcomm is working to Fossil Group, Louis Vuitton, and Montblanc to roll out smartwatches based on the Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform first. The Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform comes in three variants targeting Bluetooth and Wi-Fi tethered smartwatches, GPS-based tethered smartwatches, and 4G LTE connected smartwatches. The platform has already entered mass production. Hope we can expect Snapdragon Wear 3100-powered smartwatches later this year or early next year.