CES 2015: Intel’s Curie is a tiny chip for enabling low-power wearables

Intel is set to heavily invest in the wearable market after the unveiling of a button-sized piece of wearable hardware that it’s dubbed ‘Curie’.

But Curie itself is made up of several elements, and the most important one is a mini system called ‘Quark’. Quark is a tiny chip that is equipped with low-energy Bluetooth, a six axis sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and 384kB flash memory. Funnily enough those happen to be the main components of pretty much every wearable currently on the market.

But it’s not the components of the hardware that’s the issue here, it’s the fact that Intel has managed to make Curie so ridiculously small without sacrificing important things like energy efficiency. In fact it’s so small that it could bring about a new age of miniature wearables. Imagine having a smart ring that wasn’t bulky and uncomfortable, or even smart buttons on your clothes.

Intel has admitted that the FCC hasn’t approved Curie for use in the US just yet, but it should be ready to ship in the latter half of 2015.

This week we’re bringing you all the latest news, videos and gossip from CES 2015 in Las Vegas. Check out the CES 2015 page to keep up to date and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see hands-on news with our editor Holly Brockwell from the show floor.