Next-gen Google Glass to get Intel inside

December 1, 2014 | 11:13

Tags: #atom #google-glass #quark #smart-glasses #wearable #wearable-computing #x86

Companies: #google #intel

Intel has reportedly landed a major design win for its fledgling wearables division with the news that its chips will replace ARM-based parts from rival Texas Instruments in the next generation of Google Glass.

Formally unveiled in 2013 and launched properly in the UK back in June, Google Glass predates Google Wear as the advertising giant's stab at the future of computing. Based on a head-up display platform, the Glass hardware is a computer in its own right and powered by a Texas Instruments ARM-based system-on-chip processor. With Intel recently showing an increased focus on the embedded and wearable markets, to the point of designing a low-power chip specifically for the market as part of its attempt to capture share from Cambridge-based rival ARM.

All the designs in the world are no good without customers to buy them, but Intel has reportedly gained a major design win in the next generation of Google Glass hardware. According to anonymous sources familiar with the matter' speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Intel's chips are to replace the Texas Instruments SoC found in Google Glass as part of the company's redesign of the platform.

It's a major win for Intel in the PR sense, but not one which is likely to have a major effect on the company's bottom-line. Sales of Google Glass have been slow, largely as a result of the extremely high cost of the device and concerns as to its robustness combined with complaints that wearers of the camera-equipped devices are infringing others' privacy, with MIT Technology Review arguing that the project as envisioned by Google is largely dead in the water - although that smart glasses themselves will continue.

Neither Intel nor Google have commented on the WSJ's report, nor is it known which of Intel's processor families have been chosen for the next-generation Glass hardware - if, indeed, the anonymous sources are even accurate in their claims.
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