As part of a broader cooperation agreement with Google, Qualcomm announced this week that it will adopt the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) for future Snapdragon Wear platforms. The two companies will work together to launch his RISC-V ecosystem for wearable OS devices, with Qualcomm providing the hardware and Google expanding its ecosystem of wearable OS and related tools to support new processor architectures. You will have to do so.
Qualcomm’s Wear processors have been the de facto chip of choice for Wear OS devices since Google’s wearable platform was introduced nearly a decade ago, and Qualcomm has adopted multiple generations of Arm CPU designs. This makes Qualcomm’s decision to develop a RISC-V wearable SoC particularly important. Not only is this one of the most high-profile adoptions of RISC-V in a consumer platform to date, but depending on Qualcomm’s specific product plans, this could mean that the overall Wear OS market is relatively small. There is a possibility of a major shift from Arm to RISC-V in a short period of time.
As stated in a relatively short announcement from Qualcomm, the company will focus on developing RISC-V-based hardware suitable for wearable devices. The company has not disclosed detailed technical specifications for the products it is developing, but given the company’s significant chip design background, this could include customized RISC-V general-purpose cores and sensors. Highly sexual.
What should be noted here is “be Rather than a complete migration to RISC-V with multiple solutions, we adopted a “RISC-V-based wearable solution.” Wearables as a whole are a much smaller market than smartphones, so Qualcomm hasn’t historically offered a particularly rich lineup of hardware. Still, this also means that Qualcomm will not officially remove Arm from his Snapdragon Wear platform at this time.
Qualcomm’s decision to adopt RISC-V in its future wearable SoCs is one of the most high-profile adoptions of RISC-V in consumer devices to date, so it’s a big deal for up-and-coming ISAs. Important news. Open standard ISAs have been successful in the microcontroller market in recent years, with chip vendors often using his RISC-V CPUs instead of Arm Cortex-M designs as a means of gaining more control over CPU core design. Core is used. You won’t have to pay any ISA royalties in the process. Conversely, RISC-V has so far seen very limited adoption in the application processor space due to its more complex chip design and smaller overall market. Qualcomm’s plans to use RISC-V on its Snapdragon Wear platform, which has traditionally been based on the Arm Cortex-A design, therefore marks an important milestone for the adoption of RISC-V into higher-performance mobile devices. .
Similarly, Google’s support of ISA by porting Wear OS to RISC-V is a major software milestone. Bootstrapping a platform based on a new ISA involves software as well as hardware. This is because you need a well-developed operating system and applications to make good use of your hardware. All require critical tools to enable their development. Google is also used to employing multiple ISAs. Android has long supported Arm, x86 and even MIPS. The company already announced earlier this year that it was working to bring RISC-V to “Tier 1.” Since it’s a platform for Android, the company’s efforts with Wear OS will be done in tandem with it.
Of the two companies, Google and Qualcomm essentially make up the software and hardware backend of the Wear OS ecosystem. Google’s Wear OS is used in a variety of popular smart watches from Samsung, Fossil Group, Motorola, Casio, and more.
“Qualcomm Technologies is a pillar of the Wear OS ecosystem, delivering high-performance, low-power systems to many OEM partners,” said Bjorn Kilburn, general manager of Wear OS by Google. Masu. “We are excited to expand our collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and bring RISC-V wearable solutions to market.”
On the other hand, the decision to use RISC-V in wearables could also be a big change for Qualcomm’s business. The company is currently at loggerheads with Arm over licensing and royalties, particularly regarding the acquired Nuvia IP. The relationship has already led to lawsuits, including with Arm trying to block Qualcomm from using Nuvia-designed Arm CPU cores.
This means that by replacing Arm with RISC-V, Qualcomm won’t have to pay royalties to Arm for the Snapdragon Wear chips. Current royalties are not considered extravagant – Qualcomm uses Cortex-A53 here – but every penny saved is accounted for in Qualcomm’s quarterly revenue. At the very least, the very public announcement about the development of the RISC-V Snapdragon Wear SoC serves as a reminder that Qualcomm may eventually do the same with larger, higher-royalty chips. , you can think of it as a shot across the bow of Arm.
Dino Bekis, Vice President and General Manager, Wearables and Mixed Signal Solutions, Qualcomm Technologies. “His innovations in our Snapdragon Wear platform will help rapidly evolve the Wear OS ecosystem and streamline the launch of new devices around the world.”
