Wearable SoC: Let DSP Do 'Always Listening' Chores

Ceva makes the case with multifunction DSP

Junko Yoshida, EETimes
5/7/2014 07:55 PM EDT

MADISON, Wis. — Wearable devices are suffering from a fatal flaw: batteries that die too fast. Developers blame the problem on the dearth of tailor-made wearable SoCs that could meet their requirements.

With that in mind, if they were to develop their own wearable SoCs, what should be their priority?

On a system level, system designers first and foremost need to rethink displays. Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, said the biggest power drain in a cellphone is the screen. Switching "to black and white to save power when color is not needed" is one idea. Other power wasters include "keeping WiFi on when you're not near a hotspot."

On a silicon level, Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at Linley Group Inc., calls "higher power in the application processor" the main culprit in power drain. "Processors with four or eight cores, particularly big cores, are much more power hungry than the single- and dual-core processors from a couple of years ago." Choosing a low-power processor (CPU and/or DSP) combined with wireless communications (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, cellular) should be a high priority in wearable SoCs, he says.

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