Ingenic Newton is a development platform for wearables powered by Ingenic JZ4775, an application processor mostly used in tablets. Many companies are now making SoCs speficially designed for wearables with a powerful application core, and a low power core serving as a sensor hub, an Ingenic M200 SoC found in the new Ingenic Newton2 platform, uses the sample principle by combinging a MIPS XBurst processor @ 1.2GHz with a low power MIPS XBurst core @ 300MHz combined with low power GPU and VPU.

Ingenic Newton2 specifications:

SoC – Ingenic M200 dual core processor with MIPS XBurst @ 1.2 GHz, MIPS XBurst @ 300 MHz, 2D/3D GPU, and VPU supporting H.264, VP8, MPEG-1/2/4, VC-1, and RV9 up to 720p30

System Memory – 512 MB LPPDR2 (Samsung eMCP)

Storage – 4GB eMMC (Samsung eMCP)

Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.1 (Broadcom BCM43438) + connector for GPS

Sensors – Gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer (IvenSense MPU-9250)

Expansion Headers – 24-pin display connector, MIPI CSI / I2C camera connector, DMIC and AOHPL/R audio connector, GPS and sensors header including UART, I2C, and GPIO pins. touch connector, 14-pin button connector, and 4-pin Wi-Fi and 2.4 GHz BT connector.

Power Supply – Li-on battery: 3.7~4.2V or Micro USB: 5.0V; Ricoh RC5T619 PMIC; Standby power consumption: < 3 mW

Dimensions – 15 x 30 x 2.4 mm

Compared to the original Newton board, Newton2 is about 50% smllaer, and consumes much less power resulting in improved battery life. Target applications include smartwatches, augmented reality headsets, smart glasses, smart cameras, wearable healthcare monitors, activity trackers, smart clothing, etc… The platform runs Android 4.4 + Linux 3.10, but there’s no mention of Android Wear support.

Key features of Ingenic M200 as listed on Anandtech

Package BGA270, 7.7mm x 8.9mm x 0.76mm, 0.4mm pitch CPU XBurst1-HP core, 1.2 GHz

XBurst1-LP core, 300 MHz GPU 2D/3D acceleration with OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1. OpenVG 1.1 VPU Video encoder up to 720p @ 30fps: H.264, VP8

Video decoder up to 720p @ 30fps: H.264, VP8, MPEG-1/2/4, VC-1, RV9 ISP HDR, video and image stabilization, crop and rescale, auto exposure + gain + white balance + focus control, edge sharpening, noise reduction, color correction, contrast enhancement, gamma correction Memory DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, LPDDR2 up to 667 Mbps

64-bit ECC NAND flash support Toggle 1.0 and ONFI2.0 Display LCD controller with OSD: TFT, SLCD and MIPI-DSI (2-lanes)

E-Ink controller Camera MIPI-CSI2 (2-lanes), DVP Audio Audio CODEC with 24-bit ADC/DAC, stereo line-in, MIC in, and headphone interface

Low power DMIC controller

AC97/I2S/SPDIF interface for external audio codec

One PCM interface, supports both master and slave modes

Voice trigger engine to wake system by programmable specific voice ADC 3 channels 12-bit SAR Interfaces USB 2.0 OTG x 1

MMC/SD/SDIO controller x 2

Full-duplex UART port x 5

Synchronous serial interface x 2

Two-wire SMB serial interface x 4 Software Android 4.4

Ingenic M200, or another Ingenic SoC for wearables (M150), is said to be used in GEAK Watch 2, which can deliver 2-week of battery life. The crowdfunding campaign for the watch is still on-going.

Pricing and availability have not been disclosed for Ingenic Newton2, and if history is any guide, the board will be reserved to corporate customers, just like Ingenic Newton was. More details may be found on Ingenic Newton2 ad M200 SoC product page.