Google- “Qualcomm technologies have been a pillar of the Wear OS ecosystem.”
Semiconductor chip-maker, Qualcomm, announced an extension of their long standing partnership with Alphabet’s Google to make wearable devices using RISC-V technology. The wearables will have Google’s Wear OS, which is an android operating system designed for smart watches and other wearables.
Reduced instruction set computing based RISC-V is an open source instruction set architecture (ISA) which competes with ARM’s proprietary ISA which is a dominant choice for embedded systems and mobile devices.
Qualcomm announced its intention to launch the RISC-V-based wearables solution worldwide, including in the United States. They stated that this would enable more android ecosystem products to take advantage of custom processors that offer both low power consumption and high performance.
Recently, both companies teamed up with other industry leaders to initiate the RISC-V Software ecosystem (RISE). Qualcomm Technologies also disclosed its investment in a firm to further RISC-V hardware development.
Dino Bekis, vice president and general manager, Wearable and Mixed Signal Solutions, Qualcomm Technologies said that they are excited to leverage RISC-V and expand their Snapdragon Wear platform as a leading silicon provider for Wear OS.
General manager of Wear OS by Google, Bjorn Kilburn, said that Qualcomm has been a pillar of Wear OS ecosystem, providing high performance, low power systems for many of their OEM partners.
Lawmakers’ have concerns over China taking advantage of open collaboration between American companies to advance its own semiconductor industry. Despite these concerns , U.S. companies are working to advance RISC-V based technology.
