Low-power biometric wearables and IoT partnership formed by Winbond and Ambiq

Semiconductor memory supplier Winbond has partnered with Ambiq to manufacture ultra-low-power system solutions for IoT (Internet of Things) devices and wearables.

Following the beginning of the new collaboration, Ambiq’s Apollo4 SoC (system on a chip) and Winbond 256Mbx8 HyperRAM Hybrid Sleep Mode (HSM) will be integrated into a number of devices.

For context, the HyperRAM components are designed to deliver low power and low pin count, fast graphics, and UI display refresh optimization.

Ambiq’s Apollo4 ultra-low-power SoC is manufactured to act as an application processor as well as a coprocessor for battery-powered endpoint devices.

Initial testing has shown the IoT solutions and biometric wearable devices manufactured using Apollo4 and HyperRAM featured HSM power consumption levels of 50 percent when compared to traditional standby mode.

According to Dan Cermak, VP of Architecture and Product Planning at Ambiq, adding HyperRAM to Apollo4 enhances its low-power advantage and allows for quicker delivery of high-resolution graphics to improve the performance of IoT devices.

“As the IoT market rapidly expands with the proliferation of diverse mobile and portable devices, how to deliver the most desirable user experience becomes the holy grail for manufacturers,” Cermak explained. “Built on Ambiq’s patented Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT) platform, the Apollo4 delivers higher performance at ultra-low power consumption.”

HyperRAM components, on the other hand, offer operation frequencies between 200MHz and 250MHz, together with 13 signal pads for the x8 version and 22 signal pads for the x16 one.

“Leveraging Winbond’s HyperRAM to enable expanded storage to support high-resolution displays and complex AI datasets, we can deliver low-power solutions while maintaining low pin count for smaller form-factor endpoint devices,” Cermak concluded

Commercial production of the new solutions is expected to start in 2022.

Ambiq also recently launched a new tool for developers to integrate voice biometrics and speech recognition into IoT devices.

Article Topics

AI chips  |  Ambiq  |  biometrics  |  biometrics at the edge  |  IoT  |  research and development  |  wearables