Renesas RE family adopted as main controller of Casio G-Shock watch

The watch is equipped with an optical sensor that measures heart rate by detecting changes in the blood flow under the skin; a triple sensor that measures compass bearing, barometric pressure/altitude, and temperature; and an acceleration sensor that measures step count and distance traveled, in addition to GPS functionality that acquires location information.

Renesas claims its RE family controller implements high-load internal watch processing while consuming very little power, enabling watches that require only solar power for charging during daily use.

The controller incorporates the firm’s SOTB (silicon-on-thin buried oxide) process technology to achieve low power consumption levels in both operating and sleep modes. EW reported on the SOTB process in 2017 after a presentation at the VLSI Symposia in Kyoto.

The firm reportedly achieved up to 20% read power savings through fine-grained word line pulse width control, while allowing standby mode to operate at lower voltages through eliminating gate threshold variance. More detail can be found in the original report.

“The development of GBD-H1000 necessitated technical innovation to achieve processing performance that went beyond a mere linear extension of the capabilities of previous processors,” said Yuichi Masuda, senior executive managing officer, senior general manager of product development headquarters, senior general manager of timepiece business unit, business strategy headquarters at Casio.

“We selected Renesas’ SOTB technology for its superior results in terms of both performance and power efficiency. I am deeply grateful for the tremendous contribution of the Renesas RE family to the functional advances of the GBD-H1000.”