Qualcomm and Google are Bringing RISC-V to Wear OS

Qualcomm and Google announced today that they will extend support for Wear OS to include the RISC-V hardware platform. And if I’m reading this right, they will transition Wear OS fully to RISC-V in time.

“Qualcomm has been a pillar of the Wear OS ecosystem, providing high performance, low power systems for many of our OEM partners,” Google general manager Bjorn Kilburn said. “We are excited to extend our work with Qualcomm Technologies and bring a RISC-V wearable solution to market.”

“We are excited to leverage RISC-V and expand our Snapdragon Wear platform as a leading silicon provider for Wear OS,” Qualcomm vice president Dino Bekis added. “Our Snapdragon Wear platform innovations will help the Wear OS ecosystem rapidly evolve and streamline new device launches globally.”

To date, all Wear OS devices have run on Arm-based platforms, which Qualcomm has in recent years custom-tailored for the needs of these battery-constrained devices. The move to RISC-V is therefore quite interesting, and while I’m not completely sure if this will lead to RISC-V becoming the sole ear OS hardware platform—assuming it meets the platform’s performance and battery life needs—it certainly looks like it. Consider this quote:

“This expanded framework will help pave the way for more products within the Android ecosystem to take advantage of custom CPUs that are low power and high performance,” the announcement notes. “Leading up to this, the companies will continue to invest in Snapdragon Wear platforms as the leading smartwatch silicon provider for the Wear OS ecosystem.”

There’s no word yet on when the first devices will appear let alone when/if the Arm-based Wear OS platform will be phased out.