Smart watch dismantling, where is the difference in MCU specifications?

[Introduction] Smart watches are not new products. At the beginning of 2000, Casio launched WMP1, WPV1 and BIZX HBX-100 smart watches. At that time, those Casio smart watches fully demonstrated the sense of the future and also used them. The opportunity was to remove the focus from the PC (there was no smartphone at the time!), so we disassembled two of the three products. Key words:

Smart watch MCU

Joel Martin; the author is senior vice president and general manager of the Teardown.com website of UBM subsidiary TechInsights, senior dismantling analyst

Teardown.com has dismantled nearly 2,000 devices in the past 15 years and explored the intrinsic nature of many electronic products. Interestingly, it has recently become "smart" because of the wearable electronic devices and the Internet of Things boom. The watch is actually one of the products we have dismantled at the earliest.

Smart watches are not new products. At the beginning of 2000, Casio launched WMP1, WPV1 and BIZX HBX-100 smart watches. At that time, those Casio smart watches fully demonstrated the sense of the future and gave users a chance. I turned my attention from the PC (there was no smartphone at the time!), so we disassembled two of the three products.

Among the three smart watches, Casio offers forward-looking features such as PDA/PC connectivity, built-in camera, music playback, etc. These smart watches are equipped with 32MB of storage to support 30 minutes of music storage, and 2.8 The megapixel monochrome CMOS image sensor; although it is "backward" compared to today's technology, it can be regarded as a breakthrough technology product of Genesis at that time.

Although these Casio smart watches, which are priced between $150 and $350, have not received much response in the market, they are now "easy" in the eyes of collectors and can be sold on eBay auction sites for 200~1. , 000 dollars!

Casio's WMP1, WPV1 and BIZX HBX-100 smart watches

So, if the smart watch market was born 15 years ago, why is it still sustainable? We believe this is because various suppliers and startups have been supported by new chips and design tools to develop truly innovative products that deliver return on investment (and value).

From a social point of view, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Quantified Self became the mainstream trends in the technology industry in 2013, and products developed under those trends will soon find a foothold in the mainstream society. In addition, crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter have also promoted innovation in this field, providing an unprecedented source of funding (Pebble is a success story).

From the perspective of disassembly analysis, we classify smart watches as wearable health devices, and their focus is on the development of the Internet of Things in health care and connectivity. We believe that the advantages of this type of device will come from the sum of the technologies included and the proven, proven health technology; in addition to affordable and affordable prices to attract a wide range of potential users.

Based on the above, we have dismantled four smart watch products, including Carbon Steel Ed. B1 of Basis Science (acquired by Intel), PebbleWatch of Pebble, Toq of Qualcomm, and Galaxy Gear of Samsung (Samsung). For details, please refer to this link; it is worth noting that these four smart watches use ST's 32-bit ARM Cortex core microcontroller (MCU) and are equipped with standardized lithium polymer battery modules. .

The table below compares the MCU cores of the four smartwatches, including operating frequency, built-in flash SRAM capacity, pin count, IC cost, MCU model, and MCU chip package size. Comparison of MCU specifications of four smart watches

Teardown.com is optimistic about the future of wearable devices. From the perspectives gathered by the technical field and the analyst community, we believe that the connected mode of life that such devices will bring us is beyond doubt; Instant monitoring of personal information will actually help users improve their quality of life, health and relationships, which is not easily achieved by smartphone apps.