Samsung Electronics has unveiled an all-in-one advanced system logic chip for the health-oriented wearables market, dubbed as Bio-Processor to address the growing trend of connected health. Samsung Bio-Processor is currently in mass production and will be available in fitness/health devices within the first half of 2016, said the company.
The Samsung Bio-Processor is specifically designed to allow accelerated development of innovative wearable products for consumers who are increasingly monitoring their health and fitness on a daily basis. According to Samsung, the very small in size chip integrates not only Analog Front Ends (AFE), but also microcontroller unit (MCU), power management integrated circuit (PMIC), digital signal processor (DSP), and eFlash memory, enabling it to process the bio-signals it measures without the need of external processing parts.
While heart rate monitoring alone may have been compelling in the past, the ability to measure a variety of fitness data is expected in today’s wearable products. To meet such demands, Samsung added that it has designed its Bio-Processor to integrate five AFEs including bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), photoplethysmogram (PPG), electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, and galvanic skin response (GSR) into a single chip solution. This can be used to measure body fat, and skeletal muscle mass, heart rate, heart rhythm, skin temperature and stress level, respectively.
Ben K. Hur, VP, Marketing, System LSI Business, Samsung Electronics
Samsung’s Bio-Processor, which can process five different biometric signals, is the most versatile health and fitness monitoring chip available on the market today and is expected to open up many new health-based service options for our customers.
Image Credit: Samsung
