Adam E. Newham

Blackghost: An ultra-low-power all-in-one 28nm CMOS SoC for Internet-of-Things

This paper introduces the Blackghost 1.0, which is a test chip that paved the way for Qualcomms newest Blackghost ultra-low-power mixed-signal SoC product family. Specifically targeted at battery-powered Internet-of-Things, wearables and e-medical applications, Blackghost delivers unparalleled power efficiency through low-power innovations from software, architecture and circuit design. It integrates a small footprint sensor/control processor based on ARM Cortex M0, an on-die power management unit with direct battery attach capability, a computer vision classifier processor, a programmable DSP hardware accelerator and an ultra-low-power analog front end on a 3 × 3 mm2 die in TSMC 28LP CMOS process technology. The computation operating at near-threshold voltages (<0.6V) is clocked at frequencies up to 50 MHz and draws <9µA/MHz from the directly attached battery.