Samsung Electronics has announced it is mass producing an all-in-one advanced system logic chip for the health-oriented wearables market, the Bio-Processor. The Samsung Bio-Processor is specifically designed to allow accelerated development of wearable products for consumers who are increasingly monitoring their health and fitness on a daily basis, the vendor said. By integrating analog front ends (AFE), microcontroller unit (MCU), power management IC, digital signal processor (DSP) and eFlash memory, Samsung's Bio-Processor is able to process the bio-signals it measures without the need of external processing parts. Samsung Bio-Processor will be available in fitness/health devices within the first half of 2016, according to the company.

Microchip Technology has announced the shipment of its 10 billionth PIC-series microcontroller (MCU) to Samsung Electronics. Microchip said it delivered this 10 billionth microcontroller, the 32-bit PIC32MX340F256, approximately 10 months after delivering its nine billionth. A customer for many years, Samsung uses a broad range of Microchip's embedded-control solutions across many of its diverse product lines, including 8, 16 and 32-bit PIC microcontrollers, analog and interface ICs, serial EEPROM memory devices, RF power amplifiers, and flash memory devices.