A NEW STUDY OF SAMSUNG GEAR S2 MOBILE ARCHITECTURE, SPECIFICATION AND ITS FEATURES Aaron Lai Tien Wei1, Said Ali Akbar2, Rajev Dylon A/L Vincent3 1Diploma in ICT (SE), Asia Pacific University, Kuala Lumpur, (Malaysia) 2, 3Diploma in ICT, Asia Pacific University, Kuala Lumpur, (Malaysia) ABSTRACT In this paper, researchers were asked to conduct a study on a specific model of mobile computing.A meeting was scheduled and executed to decide the most suitable model. Three determining factors were applied for the meeting which help determined the suitable model for study. One being popularity among the public which allowed for detailed findings and sufficient data required for analysis. Public perception to balance an advantages and disadvantages of the device. Newer and lack of mainstream technology was another factor to study further on understanding mobile computing concepts. These three determining factors lead to choosing the Samsung Gear S2 as it fulfilled these three criteria. The documentation will provide coverage for the Gear S2‟s computer architecture and implementations issues. The technology that led to its release and limitations of the Gear S2. Keywords: Architecture, Data Dependency, Implementation Issues, Mobile Computing I INTRODUCTION Mobile computing is a term describing one‟s ability to use computing technology while roaming anywhere whilst he/she still maintains services and connectivity. For example, a person may use a smartphone to access online resources via Wi-Fi, instead of using their PC which isn‟t possible to do so outside his/her home or workplace. This means that mobile computing has changed people's daily lives, ranging from their interaction with daily tasks to gaining knowledge etc. 1.1 Technologies behind the Success of Mobile Computers Mobile computers would not be possible without the technologies required for it to be able to function. What allow us users, of mobile computers, can freely roam around anywhere are the following things: 491 | P a g e 1.1.1 WIFI IEEE 802.11x, also known as WIFI, is a network connection that uses radio waves to provide wireless high speed internet to its consumers. Without this technology, we wouldn‟t be able to retrieve online resources at any place and time shown in “Fig.1.1”. Figure 1.1: Wi-Fi Router [1] 1.1.2 Touch Screen Touch screen is a monitor, with a sensitive panel directly on the screen, which registers the touch of a finger as an input [2]. It replaces devices such as mouse and keyboard. Instead of having a physical peripheral device to perform functions done in a computer, the touch screen has the ability to display a virtual keyboard and sense touch from our fingertips. This allows devices such as Laptop, TV and mobile phones to be much lighter shown in “Fig.1.2”. Figure 1.2: IPhone Touch Screen [3] 1.1.3 Bluetooth Headset Bluetooth headset is another technology behind mobile computing success. It uses radio waves instead of wires to connect to the mobile devices or computer. It has an integrated microphone and small ear speaker into one device making it easier for the user to talk and listen to a call without the need to hold the mobile phone, giving its user flexibility in their daily tasks and also shown in “Fig 1.3”. 492 | P a g e Figure 1.3: Bluetooth headset [3] 1.1.4 Global Positioning System (GPS) Global Position System, aka GPS, is a satellite-based navigation system that is made up of a network of satellites placed in the Earth‟s orbit. It is used to track someone or something anywhere in the world by transmitting a signal into person‟s device such as a mobile to detect that exact location of a certain person or object. The system has replaced the need for us to look into the map and check our current position and destination manually making it immobile for us also shown in “Fig.1.4”. Figure 1.4: Smartphone GPS navigation system 1.1.5 LI-ION Battery Li-Ion battery or lithium ion battery has a high energy density and low discharge rate making it the current most efficient battery to date. The high energy density allows the battery to store excess charge granting higher power capacities. Low discharge rate is the rate of involuntary release of remaining power from the battery, decreasing its 493 | P a g e current capacity. The rate of power drain depends on the computing processes of the device itself. Rapid computing processes results in a significant power drain of the Li-ion. However, its lithium ion element allows an estimated battery lifespan of 23 hours for active users and estimated 48 hours for less active users of the device. Lithium ion batteries experience less battery deterioration and are known to last longer before needing a replacement shown in “Fig.1.5”. Figure 1.5: Lithium ion Battery II CPU SPECIFICATION, FEATURES AND GENERAL ARCHITECTURE 2.1 Central Processing Unit (CPU) The central processing unit is the brain of the devices where most of the calculations take place. The computer‟s CPU can hold all the instructions that it receives from hardware and software which is running on the computer [1]. The Samsung Gear S2 watch is using the 4th generation CPU which is Integrated Circuits (IC) shown in “Fig 2.1”. Graphics processing, system memory, and a few other functions are managed by a single integrated circuits (IC) inside the Samsung Watch. High resolution graphics shown on the display of this watch is due to very sophisticated and complex IC embedded into its CPU. Figure 2.1 Samsung Gear S2 CPU Figure 2.2: ARM Cortex – A7 494 | P a g e The ARM Cortex-A7 is a 32-bit applications processor with 40-bit physical addressing and hardware virtualization support [4]. The features of integrated L2 cache that can be configured from 128KB to 1MB as shown above “Fig 2.2”. The Cortex-A7 pipeline is based on eight stage that provides significant performance improvements compared to the Cortex-A5 processor. The other improvement is, integrated L2 cache subsystem that provides improved area efficiency and up to 43% improvements in memory streaming performance. 2.2 Features 2.2.1 S HEALTH The Samsung Gear S2 watch have one of the best features which is “S Health”. It can help to achieve the fitness goals and improve overall wellness with smarter health monitoring [5]. It will monitor daily activity levels including the number of steps we walk in a day, how many calories we burn due to our daily activities such as walking, running, jumping etc. This smart watch also tracts and stores in its memory the distance we walked or run in a day. This Samsung watch can help us to control the caffeine intake and encourage us to drink more water. Samsung Gear S2 watch can also measure the wearers‟ pulse which is an important health indicator. It we want lose our weight in a short period, Samsung Gear S2 will help to monitor our daily activities such as running, walking, jogging, swimming, cycling etc shown in “Fig 2.3”. Figure 2.3: Types of S Health 495 | P a g e 2.2.2 Social Media Samsung Gear S2 help us to check messages or emails without having to take out our smartphone especially when we are walking in a crowded place. The watch will provide an alert whenever there is a message or email received by the smartphone. It is dangerous to read a message from our phone while driving. But by looking at our smart watch we read the message and stop our car if it is urgent to reply to the message received. Samsung Gear S2 watch can also use voice command to type and send messages or emails. Some of voice command features of this watch, which is called S Voice, is a hands-free feature to check notifications, start the workout, to get the direction for GPS or to reply the message/email [6] also shown in “Fig.2.4”. Figure 2.4: Examples of social media 2.2.3 Samsung Gear S2 GPS Samsung Gear S2 is very useful as a GPS (Global Positioning System). When we travel for vacation or recreation by bicycle and stuck somewhere in middle of the jungle, Samsung Gear S2 can help us to find the direction to get the way out of the jungle as shown “Fig 2.5”. There is one app called “Uber” which is a cab service provider. Samsung Gear S2 will show the time when the Uber cab will arrive to pick us up and even it will also show the map where the current location of the Uber cab is. Figure 2.5: Samsung Gear S2 GPS 496 | P a g e 2.2.4 Connected & Bluetooth Availability Samsung Gear S2 can pair with the smartphone or any other devices except iPhone. It can connect only android smartphones. When Gear S2 watch connected with the android smartphone, we can talk with someone through the watch without having to take out our smartphone. Samsung Gear S2 comes with a loudspeaker and microphone. We can hear the messages or send message by voice command by using this microphone. Bluetooth + 3G/4G model has a built-in speaker for standalone phone calls [7]. It can make call, text, and email and receive notifications even when the phone isn‟t nearby. Samsung Gear S2 has sim-card which can call directly to the watch shown in “Fig.2.6”. Figure 2.6: Samsung Gear S2 Phone Call III IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES This section will explain the various implementation issues associated with the Gear S2 based on information on its computer architecture and from varied user reviews.