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How to Build a Smartwatch: Picking a Chip
How To Build A Smartwatch: Picking A Chip
You need to identify a target experience goal (”I want a smartwatch with an always-on daylight readable display that lasts for 30 days”), then break that down into features/specifications (”e-paper display”, “Bluetooth LE”, “water resistant”, “$150 retail price”) and then create a design with hardware and software components (”Sharp Memory LCD”, “150mAh lipoly battery”, “FreeRTOS” etc) that meet your specifications and fulfill your goal. Think of an MCU as a miniature computer - it contains a CPU, RAM, (usually) flash storage, i/o peripherals and sometimes radios, all within a single tiny integrated circuit. Getting back to constraint maximization, the MCU sits at the focal point of the most constrained governing ‘equations’ - software compatibility, power consumption and cost.
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