wearables News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

May 28, 2025May 28, 2025 by Debashis Das - No Comments

ST’s LSM6DSV320X – An AI-enabled IMU with two MEMS accelerometers for activity and shock detection

STMicroelectronics has introduced the LSM6DSV320X, a compact AI-enabled inertial measurement unit (IMU) that integrates a 3-axis digital gyroscope, a 3-axis low-g accelerometer (±16g), and a 3-axis high-g accelerometer (±320g) in a tiny 3 x 2.5mm package, ideal for space-constrained IoT devices such as wearables, smartphones, gaming controllers, smart tags, personal safety gear, and industrial monitoring systems. Most motion sensors are designed to track daily activities or detect sudden impacts, but the LSM6DSV320X is built to do both. One accelerometer tracks everyday motion up to ±16g, while the other handles high-impact events up to ±320g. One of the most interesting features is its adaptive self-configuration (ASC), which allows real-time adjustment of internal settings based on activity without the need for a host CPU, optimizing power use and responsiveness. It also includes a machine learning core (MLC) capable of running up to eight decision trees and a finite state machine (FSM) to […]

May 23, 2025May 23, 2025 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

Infineon PSoC 4100T Plus multi-sense Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU supports ML-based liquid level sensing, wake-on-touch with 8µA deep sleep mode

Infineon PSoC 4100T Plus is a new low-power Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU designed for battery-powered or low-power embedded systems that require advanced capacitive touch and proximity sensing. The microcontroller comes with 128 KB of flash, 32 KB of SRAM, and an 8 KB ROM. One of the most interesting features of this MCU is Infineon’s fifth-generation CapSense MSCLP technology, which enables high-resolution, low-power capacitive sensing even in deep sleep mode (as low as 8 µA). Its capacitive sensing uses both self and mutual capacitance methods, supported by analog front-end filtering, sigma-delta modulation, and digital filtering techniques, delivering a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 5:1 for accurate detection. The MCU supports gesture detection, human-machine interfaces (HMI), and smart sensing applications, making it ideal for wearables, consumer devices, and IoT systems. Additional features include a 12-bit 1-MSps SAR ADC, six TCPWM blocks, smart I/O with programmable logic functions, multiple UART/I2C/SPI interfaces, and up to […]

May 14, 2025May 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

SiFli SF32LB52J big.LITTLE Arm Cortex-M33 Bluetooth MCU powers the Core Time 2 smartwatch

SiFli SF23LB52J is a Bluetooth 5.3 microcontroller part of the SF32LB52x family with two Cortex-M33 in big.LITTLE configuration with a 240 MHz high-performance core for user application/GUI and a 24 MHz low-power core to manage the Bluetooth part. A few months ago, Eric Migicovsky, the founder of the smartwatch company Pebble, and now Core Devices, introduced the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches running PebbleOS open-source firmware that were mostly relaunches of the never-released Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 with some tweaks. We already knew the Core 2 Duo would be based on a Nordic nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller, however, the one for the Core Time 2 was kept secret. That’s until today, as Eric has just announced that the Core Time 2 would be based on the SiFli SF23LB52J MCU, since the smartwatch required an MCU with more RAM and processing power, and SiFli also offers […]

April 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Beacon W5+ SoM – A tiny (27x15mm) Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ System-on-Module for wearables

Beacon EmbeddedWorks’ W5+ SoM is an ultra-compact (27×15 mm) system-on-module powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ platform for wearables with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, a co-processor with an Arm Cortex-M55 core and an Ethos U55 ML accelerator, and WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. The Snapdragon W5/W5+ wearables platforms were introduced in the summer of 2022, but so far, all I could find was a $2,000 devkit (TurboX W5+) suitable for ODM/OEM manufacturers. The upcoming Beacon W5+ SoM will be one of the first hardware solutions based on the Snapdragon W5+ platform designed for commercial applications. Beacon W5+ specifications: Platform – Snapragon W5+ SW5100P-0 SoC CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.7 GHz GPU – Qualcomm Adreno A702 @ up to 1,010 MHz with OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.0, OpenCL 2.0 API support DSP – Dual Qualcomm Hexagon DSP V66K ISP – Dual ISP VPU 1080p30 Video Decode […]

April 4, 2025 by Debashis Das - 1 Comment

LILYGO T-Watch S3 Plus smartwatch gets GPS and 940mAh battery

LILYGO has recently introduced the T-Watch S3 Plus, an ESP32-S3 smartwatch which can be considered an upgrade from the previous generation T-Watch S3, adding a u-blox MIA-M10Q GPS and a larger 940mAh LiPo battery for extended battery life. The T-Watch S3 Plus smartwatch still supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, and LoRa connectivity, and integrates a 1.54-inch 16-bit full-color TFT LCD display with capacitive touch and a wide-viewing angle. The smartwatch also features an infrared (IR) transmitter that can be used for remote control or proximity detection. T-Watch S3 Plus specifications Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-Core 32-bit Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI/ML acceleration Memory – 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB flash, 384KB ROM Wireless – Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE/Mesh Display – 1.54-inch 16-bit full color TFT LCD display with 240×240 resolution, capacitive touch; ST7789V SPI controller Audio – […]

March 19, 2025March 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

The Pebble Smartwatch is back with the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 models running PebbleOS open-source firmware

The Pebble Smartwatch was first introduced in 2012 with a black and white e-Paper display, a week of battery life, and an amazingly successful Kickstarter company that raised over 10 million dollars. It was followed by the Pebble Time with a color display in 2015, and the Pebble 2 & Time 2 watches followed in 2016. But then it all went south from there, and Pebble’s assets were purchased by Fitbit in December 2016, all projects were canceled that year, and cloud services were discontinued in June 2018. Since then, the community has taken over working on the Rebble project to keep existing watches running, and Google acquired Fitbit in 2021. However, the project is slowly coming back to life. First, Google released the source code for the Pebble smartwatches and Pebble’s founder, Eric Migicovsky, and a team of engineers worked on reviving the project which now culminates with the […]

March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Tiny Silicon Labs BG29 Bluetooth LE SoC measures just 2.8 x 2.6mm for wearables and sensors

Yesterday, we wrote about the world’s smallest microcontroller (TI MSPM0C1104), which measures just 1.38mm2 in its smallest package. However, it is designed for general-purpose applications without built-in wireless connectivity. If you need Bluetooth LE in a tiny form factor, Silicon Labs BG29 wireless SoC, with a 2.8x 2.6mm package, is worth a look. The BG29 features a Cortex-M33 core clocked at up to 76.8 MHz, up to 256KB SRAM, up to 1MB flash, various digital and analog peripherals, and security features that make it suitable for Bluetooth LE applications such as wearable health and medical devices, asset trackers, and battery-powered sensors. Silicon Labs BG29 (EFR32BG29) specifications: CPU core – Arm Cortex-M33 @ 76.8 MHz with DSP instruction and floating-point unit Memory – Up to 256 kB RAM data memory Storage – Up to 1 MB flash program memory Wireless – 2.4 GHz radio Protocols – Bluetooth 5.4 Low Energy (LE) […]

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Texas Instruments MSPM0C1104 is the world’s smallest microcontroller with a size of 1.38mm2

Texas Instruments (TI) has expanded the MSPM0 Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU family with the MSPM0C1104 which is the world’s smallest microcontroller measuring just 1.38mm2 in its WCSP package, or about the size of a black pepper flake. Equipped with up to 16KB flash, 1KB SRAM, I/Os such as GPIO, I2C, UART, SPI, and a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the MSPM0C1104 is optimized for space-constrained applications such as medical wearables and personal electronics. TI MSPM0C1104 specifications: MCU Core – 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ CPU clocked at up to 24MHz Memory – 1KB of SRAM Storage – Up to 16KB of flash Peripherals Up to 18x GPIO (5V tolerant) 1x UART, 1 I2C, 1x SPI Analog 1x Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with up to 10 total external channels, 1.7Msps at 10 bit or 1.5Msps at 12 bit with VDD as the voltage reference Configurable 1.4V or 2.5V internal ADC voltage reference (VREF) Integrated temperature sensor […]