Products are cool, but the real work in technology happens levels deeper than that. That’s why Freescale’s announcement of a wearables hardware reference platform is important stuff.
The platform is built around Freescale’s i.MX 6SoloLite ARM® Cortex®-A9 apps processor and supports Android. Included as part of the platform is a turn-key pedometer, a compass and Freescale’s ARM Cortex-M0+ Kinetis KL16 microcontroller. From the press release:
Unlike other wearable solutions, the new platform is not limited to just one form factor or product category. The highly flexible, system-level design kit supports embedded wireless charging, incorporates processors and sensors within a hybrid architecture for scalability and flexibility, and comes with open-source software. The wearables reference platform (WaRP) is engineered to unleash design creativity for multiple vertical segments such as sports monitors, smart glasses, activity trackers, smart watches and healthcare/medical applications.
This reads like a shot at Philippe Kahn’s Fullpower Technologies, which makes the guts behind the Nike Fuelband, In any event, reference platform are Good News, because they mean developers can skip some of the hard hardware work and get right to designing applications and the add-on hardware that make it go.
Availability is in 2Q14, for $149. Get it here.