Toshiba is hoping developers will use its application processors to build wearable devices, and has launched hardware and software development kits to help make it happen.

The chip industry has become transfixed by the massive potential of the market for wearables and other IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Vendors such as Intel and Broadcom are developing products and offering development tools to make them easier to integrate. Toshiba has now joined the fray.

The company’s new development environment includes an HDK (hardware development kit) embedded with the TZ1001MBG application processor, an SDK (software development kit) that runs on it, as well as a software development tool, according to Toshiba.

The aim is to make it easier and cheaper to develop products powered by the TZ1001MBG, which includes a sensor, a processor, flash memory, and a Bluetooth Low Energy controller in one package. One application might be to check a wearable user’s heart rate, for example.

Toshiba will start supplying IoT device developers with the kits on May 7, and also, from Tuesday, run a campaign offering a development environment and reference board free of charge, the company said.