Qualcomm and Google expand collaboration around wearable technology

Qualcomm Technologies says it is building on its long-standing collaboration with Google by bringing a RISC-V based wearables solution for use with Wear OS by Google.

This expanded framework will help reduce time to market for OEMs when launching smartwatches with advanced features like custom cores, low power, and higher performance.

Leading up to this, the companies will continue to invest in Snapdragon Wear platforms as the leading smartwatch silicon provider for the Wear OS ecosystem.

Bjorn Kilburn, GM of Wear OS by Google, says: “Qualcomm Technologies have been a pillar of the Wear OS ecosystem, providing high performance, low power systems for many of our OEM partners.

“We are excited to extend our work with Qualcomm Technologies and bring a RISC-V wearable solution to market.”

Dino Bekis, vice president and general manager, wearables and mixed signal solutions, Qualcomm Technologies, says: “We are excited to leverage RISC-V and expand our Snapdragon Wear platform as a leading silicon provider for Wear OS.

“Our Snapdragon Wear platform innovations will help the Wear OS ecosystem rapidly evolve and streamline new device launches.”

Both companies recently joined other industry leaders to launch the RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) and Qualcomm Technologies recently announced that it’s investing in a new company to advance RISC-V hardware development

As an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA), RISC-V encourages innovation by allowing any company to develop completely custom cores. This allows more companies to enter the marketplace, which creates increased innovation and competition.

RISC-V’s openness, flexibility, and scalability benefits the entire value chain – from silicon vendors to OEMs, end devices, and consumers.