Broadcom claims that its second-generation platform for smartwatches significantly lowers the power, size and development costs of such devices. The new smartwatch reference design platform for wristband-style wearables and higher-end smartwatches adds out-of-the box connectivity, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication (NFC), GPS and a sensor hub, with six MEMS sensors that can measure humidity, temperature, movement and pressure, among other data points. For higher-end smartwatch designs, it includes an applications processor and modem to establish a connection over the cellular network.

It’s also optimized for the development of Android Wear-based wearables, which today supports an applications processor, Bluetooth, GPS and the sensor hub.

Broadcom has shrinked the circuit board size by about 40 percent and has also add features that optimize power, such as offloading some tasks from the applications processor on to less power-intensive parts of the system. All thses allow implementers to add a bigger battery to their devices.

For example, in first-generation wearables, playing back an MP3 file would consume about 24 milliamps of juice. Broadcom says its second-generation solution can now do the same task at 15 milliamps, for almost double the music playback time.

Broadcom's Smartwatch Platform includes:

• Broadcom wearable system-on-a-chip (SoC) including 4xA7 application processor and 2G/3G modem support
• BCM4343: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2/Bluetooth Smart combo chip
• BCM4773: GPS SoC with integrated sensor hub
• BCM20795: NFC and secure element support
• BCM59350: Wireless charging support
• Camera support
• Support for Android Wear OS

Broadcom's new smartwatch reference design is sampling now.