Andes Technology Corporation Announces a Design Win in ITE Tech. Inc. IT835X Series Sensor Hub Chips Targeting the High Growth Wearable & IOT Market

Andes N801 CPU Core Executes ITE's Sensor Fusion Algorithm for Accelerometer, Gyroscope, and Magnetometer to Greatly Reduce Wearable Power Consumption

HSINCHU, TAIWAN-- June 14, 2016 -- Andes Technology Corporation, the leading Asia-based suppliers of small, low-power, high performance 32-bit embedded CPU cores, announced that its N801 CPU core has been designed into the IT835X sensor hub chip from ITE Tech. Inc. based in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The Andes N801 32-bit CPU core executes ITE's sensor fusion algorithm for accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer-core elements found in most wearable devices. Andes N801's best in class MIPS/mW specification enables the IT835X to achieve reduced power consumption while providing the high performance the sensor fusion algorithm demands.

"We're very proud of our sensor hub system-on-chip (SoC)," stated Mr. Lawrence Liu, General Manager-Business Division at ITE Tech. Inc. "Soon after we launched the chip, it won several OEMs' design for mobile device application. Our choice of the Andes N8 CPU core with its small gate count and superior MIPS-per-mWatt performance helps make the IT835X sensor hub chip a competitive offering to win customers in the fast growing sensor hub market. With the Andes N8 32-bit MCU, the IT835X operates independently to integrate sensing information and significantly reduces the burden on the system CPU to achieve the low-power requirements of smartphones, tablets and wearable devices."

"We are extremely pleased that ITE Tech chose the N801 as the central processor in their IT835X sensor hub chip," said Al Kuo-Chi Lin, Vice President of Andes Technology Corp. "Sensor hubs are key elements in wearable electronics to help reduce the applications processor's load. The AndesCore™ series offer many features for wearable electronics. They include CoDense™ for very compact code size; StackSafe for automatic detection of stack overflow; PowerBrake for a purely digital way to scale frequency and power without a clock divider; FastWakeUp for Automatic CPU state save/restore for fast power-down/power-up; and FlashFetch, which is separate IP to speed up internal Flash and allow execute-in-place external Flash support. Andes Custom Extension (ACE) provides programmable acceleration and energy reduction through the use of custom instructions."

Wearable Application

In the paper "ZOE: A Cloud-less Dialog-enabled Continuous Sensing Wearable Exploiting Heterogeneous Computation," Nicholas D. Lane, et al detail a match-box sized lapel-worn sensor that continuously senses data to determine three major variables: Personal Sensing-physical activity, transport (car, train, etc.), and stress; Social Sensing-conversations with others; and Place Sensing-work or home. Zoe is built around three processors: an applications processor running the algorithms that analyze data from the accelerometer and gyroscope sensor hub (an IT835X with Andes N8) that provides personal sensing, the microphone sensor that provides social sensing, and place sensing. The design goal for ZOE is to operate all day on a single battery charge. In the paper, the authors observe that the three-processor approach achieves this goal, providing a 30 percent increase in system operation as contrasted with running the three discrete functions on the one applications processor.

High Growth Wearable Market

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 27.4 million units during the 2015 holiday quarter, besting 4Q14 levels by 126.9 percent. For the full year, vendors shipped a total of 78.1 million units, up a strong 171.6 percent over 2014. "Triple-digit growth highlights growing interest in the wearables market from both end-users and vendors," noted Ramon Llamas, Research Manager for IDC's Wearables team. "It shows that wearables are not just for the technophiles and early adopters; wearables can exist and are welcome in the mass market. And since wearables have yet to fully penetrate the mass market, there is still plenty of room for growth in multiple vectors: new vendors, form factors, applications, and use cases. This will help propel the market further."

About ITE Tech. Inc.

ITE Tech. Inc. (abbreviated as ITE) is a professional fabless IC design house, established in 1996 and headquartered in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan. ITE is well known as the global leader in Super I/O as well as Keyboard and Embedded Controller technology. The market share of ITE's Super I/O products, adopted by many well-known PC manufactures, has been over 40 percent worldwide. Following steady growth, ITE is gradually expanding its product line and technology expertise. Currently ITE employs many highly qualified engineers specializing in software/hardware development on PC/NB Controller, Digital TV Receiver Controller, Multimedia Controller, and Analog IC as well as marketing talents.

After many years of technology integration, ITE has developed much advanced Silicon Intellectual Property (SIP) and highly integrated system software/hardware technology. Through the combination of diverse products, a total solution can be provided to customers by the concept of system platform. Moreover, ITE strategically cooperates with globally leading suppliers to enhance final product development and speed the Time-to-Market schedule. After growing with customers, ITE provides high quality products to customers thereby creating a win-win situation for both. For more information about ITE Technology, Inc., please visit http://www.ite.com.tw/en/

About Andes Technology Corporation

Andes Technology Corp. was founded in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan in 2005 to develop innovative high-performance/low-power 32-bit processor cores and associated development environment to serve worldwide rapidly growing embedded system applications. The company delivers the best super low power CPU cores with integrated development environment and associated software and hardware solutions for efficient SoC design.

To meet demanding requirements of today's electronic devices, Andes Technology delivers configurable software/hardware IP and scalable platforms to respond to customers' needs for quality products and faster time-to-market. Andes Technology's comprehensive CPU includes entry-level, mid-range, high-end, extensible and security families to address full range of embedded electronics products, especially for connected, smart and green applications.

For more information about Andes Technology, please visit http://www.andestech.com/.