Intel pretty much invented the idea of ever-faster ever-smaller processors; Gordon Moore, for whom Moore’s Law was named, was an Intel founder and chairman. Yesterday, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich unveiled Curie, a button-sized module that the company hopes will be the intelligence in the next generation of wearables.
The Curie is a follow-on to the Edison module, which was the size of an SD card and was announced at last year’s CES. As the photo shows, it is much smaller than the Edison and you can easily see how it will be able to fit into more — and more different types — of devices and clothing.
Curie is based on a low-power, 32-bit Intel® Quark™ microcontroller, includes 384kB flash memory and 80kB SRAM, and features an integrated DSP sensor hub, a 6-axis combo sensor, Bluetooth Low Energy, and battery charging circuitry.
What Krzanich showed was a prototype; Curie isn’t expected until the second half of the year. As with the Edison, Intel will provide an SDK.
(Curie is named after Marie Curie, one of the discoverers of radioactivity and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. The Curie module was shown at the same event that Intel announced a $300 million effort to increase diversity in the tech industry — surely not a coincidence.)