Imagination comes with Newton soc for wearables with Android Wear

Imagination has announced a system-on-a-chip intended for use in wearables running Android Wear. This Newton-soc promises low power consumption and features a Mips processor with model number JZ4775 and a clock speed of 1GHz.

The company states on its blog that as a hardware partner for Google’s Android Wear operating system, it will provide hardware that can be used in wearables, such as smartwatches. The Newton-soc is based on a design by Mips, a company that previously acquired Imagination. Meanwhile, Imagination has already ported both Android 4.4 and the Linux 3.0.8 kernel to the Newton-soc.

According to Imagination, the Newton-soc runs the JZ4775, a Mips-based processor from the Chinese company Ingenic that works at a clock speed of 1GHz. The processor is a single core on Ingenic’s proprietary Xburst core, based on the Mips32 instruction set. The Soc supports a RAM of up to 3GB RAM and it can make connections via the radio chip via WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and FM. In addition, there are several sensors on board: a gyroscope, compass, humidity meter and a pressure gauge.

Manufacturers have the option to choose components themselves to assemble the Newton-soc. Not all parts of the soc are necessary for some applications, Imagination argues. According to the company, manufacturers can use the soc for wearables, but applications for other consumer electronics can also be devised. The Newton SOC is about the size of an SD card.

Imagination states that the Newtonian soc consumes little power. Smartwatches equipped with the chip should last more than 30 hours on a full charge, according to Imagination. It is still unclear which companies are interested in the Newton-soc.