When you start getting into the wearables market, even mobile SoCs can be somewhat big and power-hungry. As such, we are seeing more innovation in processors that satisfy these lower classes (which could just be us paying more attention). The MediaTek MT2601 is one such device, which combines a pair of ARM Cortex-A7 cores (1.2 GHz) with an ARM Mali 400MP GPU (intended frequency unknown) on a package PCB that is less than 480mm2. (Edit @ 9:48PM — they seem to mean the SoC and other chips, like the Bluetooth module)
MediaTek's release does not list fab nodes, but PDAdb.net claims that it is designed for 28nm.
Of course, these chips are designed to be low cost, low power, and whatever performance can be squeezed out of those two requirements, so it might not be the most interesting SoC that we can talk about. Still, battery life has been a major hindrance to smart watches and other small, niche devices. It will be interesting to see new-generation devices that use these components.
Heck, if I had more time, I might even want to hack around with these directly.
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“a package less than 480mm”?
“a package less than 480mm”? I would freaking hope so! 🙂
How about 48mm^2? That would be more wearable friendly–also, it would be a unit of area not length and that would make more sense.
Forget wearables, how about putting it on a board like an rPi or Arduino?
Yeah, I screwed up a bit.
Yeah, I screwed up a bit. It's apparently 480mm^2 for the whole chipset.
That still seems pretty big.
That still seems pretty big. I guess it’s just a bit over 2 cm on a side if it’s a square. That’s still pretty darn big for something purported to be for wearables.
That’s apparently PCB size,
That's apparently PCB size, so including the Bluetooth chip, etc.
For a wearable, that still
For a wearable, that still sounds like a lot. For my rPi/Arduino replacement, it’s just fine, though. 🙂