Samsung Electronics today announced the mass production of Samsung Bio-Processor, its new all-in-one logic chip aimed at wearables that focus on health. The chip has been designed by the company keeping in mind the increasing popularity of fitness wearables that allow one to monitor their health and fitness levels from their wrist.
This is the first all-in-one chip solution that has been made for wearables. Thanks to five integrated AFEs — bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), photoplethysmogram (PPG), electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, and galvanic skin response (GSR) — the Bio-Processor is able to measure body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rate, heart rhythm, skin temperature and stress levels. The Bio-Processor is also power and space efficient and features an integrated MCU, PMIC DSP and eFlash memory on a single chip. The wearables market is all set to explode over the coming next years, but the devices have felt very limited in what they could do. The Samsung Bio-Processor might just be able to change that provided it is able to accurately measure the data. It will also be interesting to see if Samsung will share its Bio-Processor with other wearable makers including Apple or not.
