MegaChips Partners with Bosch Sensortec to Deliver Health and Fitness tracking for Smartphones and Wearables in Real Time

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer Electronics Show (CES) – MegaChips Corporation today announced a partnership with Bosch Sensortec to provide a complete reference design for use in smartphones, wearables and other personal devices allowing consumers to monitor their activities in real time. Available today, the reference design provides both context and location awareness for health, fitness and indoor navigation monitoring and tracking applications. MegaChips is demonstrating this "Chignon B" reference design at the Bosch booth, CES stand number 71032, Sands Expo.

Research firm ABI forecasts 42 million wearable fitness and health devices will be shipped in 2014, up from 32 million in 2013. This market growth is fueled by the proliferation of low-power microchips and sensors such as those from MegaChips and Bosch Sensortec. MegaChips' ultra-low power frizz, combined with the SiTime SiT1602 programmable MHz oscillator and the Bosch Sensortec MEMS sensors BMI160, BMM150 and BME280 provide more meaningful data, easy interpretation, higher accuracy and ultra-low power critical for longer battery life.

"With each generation, devices are getting smaller and more accurate," said Utah Iwasaki, manager, business development MegaChips Technology America Corporation. "Our new joint solution with first-rate sensors from Bosch enables longer lasting wearable devices that collect more accurate data on movement, speed, distance and direction. We can, for instance, track how someone is moving their arms and legs, which is great for golf swing analysis."

Jeanne Forget, director global marketing at Bosch Sensortec said, "MegaChips has an excellent reputation for providing high-performance, ultra-low power chips that are important in consumer electronics. We are delighted to partner with MegaChips to complement our broad MEMS sensor portfolio. With our joint technologies we can create superior wearable devices that give people tremendous benefits in their everyday lives, such as longer battery life and new applications."

Piyush Sevalia, executive vice president of marketing at SiTime Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of MegaChips, said, "SiTime's groundbreaking MEMS and programmable analog technologies allow us to deliver game-changing MEMS timing solutions. Our MHz and kHz solutions provide the best accuracy, the smallest size and the lowest power, all of which are ideally suited for wearable electronics and internet of things (IoT)."

Added Iwasaki, "We are developing technology to help people get healthier, and are in joint discussions with major wearable companies to bring these portable electronics to market quickly. As more people are engaging in some form of digital examination, the ability to collect real-time information about our bodies and our behavior is crucial and will pave the way for changing how we manage our health and fitness. Bosch is the best partner for us to team up with to help empower this important evolution."

Frizz is a motion sensor hub with a 32bit DSP based motion engine called "ParaForce" that can realize high performance calculations used in processing algorithms with ultra-low power consumption in lieu of a microprocessor, which often runs at hundreds of MHz and consumes much higher power, thereby extending the runtime of portable devices. To facilitate a faster development cycle, MegaChips can provide an algorithm for indoor navigation, which utilizes the special functions from the ParaForce engine that are inside frizz. This innovative product is designed to accurately track altitude, motion, speed and direction. It empowers wearables that recognize sleep patterns, watch over elderly and find children lost in stores/malls.    

For more information about the Bosch Sensortec MEMS sensors and solutions please go to www.bosch-sensortec.com

Availability
The joint frizz and Bosch Sensortec solution is available now from MegaChips.

About Bosch Sensortec
Bosch Sensortec GmbH is a fully owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH, dedicated to the consumer electronics world offering a complete portfolio of micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) sensors and solutions that enable mobile devices to feel and sense the world around them. Bosch Sensortec develops and markets a wide portfolio of MEMS sensors and solutions for smart phones, tablets, wearable devices and IoT (Internet of Things) applications.  The product portfolio includes 3-axis acceleration, gyroscope and geomagnetic sensors, integrated 6- and 9-axis as well as environmental sensors and a comprehensive software portfolio. Since its foundation in 2005 Bosch Sensortec emerged as the technology leader in the addressed markets. The Bosch Group has been the global market leader for MEMS sensors since 1998 and has to date sold more than 4 billion MEMS sensors. 
For more information, go to www.bosch-sensortec.com. 

About MegaChips
MegaChips Corporation (1st section of the TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange): 6875) was established in 1990 as the first innovative fabless LSI company in Japan dedicated to ASICs and SOCs with integrating LSIs and systems/applications knowledge. Its focus is on the development of cutting-edge SOCs incorporating original algorithms and architecture in the areas of imaging, audio, and telecommunications, and using the advances it achieves to offer outstanding products and solutions that meet the needs of its clients. MegaChips' products and technologies are targeting to Mobile, Wearable devices and IoT applications. For additional information, please visit: http://www.megachips.co.jp/english/index.html

About MegaChips Technology America Corporation ("MegaChips America")
MegaChips America is a wholly owned subsidiary of MegaChips Corporation headquartered in Osaka, Japan. MegaChips and MegaChips America are fabless LSI companies, focused on the development of system LSIs and system products that incorporate original algorithms and architecture. Customers use MegaChips solutions for their office automation, networking and storage needs in a wide range of areas, including imaging, audio, home networking, security and communications environments. MegaChips America is headquartered in San Jose, California, with design centers at Osaka, Tokyo and Chiba in Japan and Bangalore in India of MegaChips Corporation. For more information, contact the company at 408-570-0555, or visit http://www.megachips.us.

About SiTime
SiTime Corporation, a MEMS analog semiconductor company and a wholly owned subsidiary of MegaChips Corporation (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6875), offers MEMS-based silicon timing solutions that replace legacy quartz products. With 80% market share and about 250 million devices shipped, SiTime is driving the electronics industry to use 100% silicon-based timing. SiTime's configurable solutions enable customers to differentiate their products with higher performance, reduced size and better reliability. The rich feature set and flexibility of SiTime's solutions allow customers to consolidate their supply-chain, reducing cost of ownership and time to market. By using standard semiconductor processes and high volume packaging, SiTime offers the best availability and shortest lead times in the industry. Top-tier manufacturers are experiencing these benefits and recognize SiTime as The Smart Timing Choice™. For more information, visit www.sitime.com.

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SOURCE MegaChips Corporation

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