CES: Intel plays wearable card

Intel Curie

Intel’s spin in wearable devices seems to be based on a hardware module and the microprocessor company’s first purpose-built system-on-chip (SoC) device.

But the module, called Curie, is only scheduled to ship in the second half of this year. This means Intel will miss the first generation of wearable products, and could see it playing catch-up with other suppliers including Samsung and Qualcomm.

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Intel has based its wearable hardware on its lowest power processor, the Quark. This has been combined with the de facto Bluetooth Smart wireless comms interface and a six-axis combo sensor with accelerometer and gyroscope.

Intel’s main mobile processor rival Qualcomm made a big jump into the wearables market in 2014 when it acquired CSR, the Cambridge-based Bluetooth and wireless chip firm.

This gives Qualcomm, whose Snapdragon low power processors already out-perform Intel’s mobile chips, an established range of wearable modules based on CSR’s Bluetooth Smart chipsets which now work with Andorid Wear devices as well as smartphones.

But maybe Intel has a wearable opportunity. Qualcomm has yet to tell the market how it will integrate the CSR wearable platform with its Snapdragon processors which already power most of the world’s Android smartphones.

The Cambridge-based CSR demonstrated its wearable hardware at CES in Las Vegas using a LG G watch to control home heating and lighting.

CSR believes it is important for this smart home application to be compatible with existing consumer devices, including smart watches. Android wear will provide this.

richard wilson

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via Yuichun