Nordic Semiconductor, a provider of low-power wireless solutions, has announced the nRF71 Series of ultra-low-power Systems-On-Chip (SoCs), bringing together ultra-low-power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), Thread and edge AI onto a single chip.
Built on the ultra-low-power design, software, and tools behind Nordic’s Bluetooth LE products, the nRF71 Series delivers up to 20 times lower standby power usage than current-generation nRF70 Series Wi-Fi products.
This leap in energy efficiency is expected to unlock new possibilities for developers targeting battery-powered Wi-Fi devices in applications such as smart home, wearables and industrial IoT.
“Edge AI will be part of every connected device, but for those that run on a battery, Wi-Fi has demanded a power budget they could not afford,” said Kjetil Holstad, the EVP of Wi-Fi and power management at Nordic Semiconductor. “With the nRF71 Series, Nordic removes that barrier. We are bringing Wi-Fi and edge AI to the same ultra-low-power platform and tools developers already trust for Bluetooth LE, so the next generation of intelligent products can connect to any network, make decisions on the device, and still run for years on a battery.”
Edge AI and the entire application on one chip
AI inference at the edge can now run directly on a single chip, with no external AI processor, so devices respond faster, use less power and need fewer components. Keyword spotting, anomaly detection and image classification are practical on battery-powered devices using nRF71 Series, thanks to its integrated Axon Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which runs machine learning models 10x to 17x faster than the 256 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor alone. The nRF71 Series can also run ultra-small AI models that developers build from their own data with Nordic’s Neuton software, which is ideal for running edge AI on the processor alone.
From its Axon NPU and Neuton software to over-the-air model updates with nRF Cloud, Nordic is bringing edge AI to battery-powered Wi-Fi devices, with the application, wireless connectivity and AI all running on a single chip.
Battery-powered Wi-Fi for smart home, security and industrial IoT
With nRF71 Series, battery-powered smart home hub, Matter bridge, or Thread border router designs can now run Wi-Fi, Thread and Bluetooth LE on a single chip, as can Matter-enabled smart locks, security panels, wearables and industrial sensors. Two independent radios with separate RF and processing blocks make this possible: a Wi-Fi radio and Nordic’s 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio from the latest generation nRF54 Series wireless SoCs. Both radios receive simultaneously, for devices to maintain their Wi-Fi connection to the cloud while listening for Bluetooth LE or Thread traffic, without either protocol waiting for the other.
The first nRF71 Series SoCs are the nRF7120 and the nRF7120E. The nRF7120 offers dual-band Wi-Fi 6, while nRF7120E adds tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, and the Axon NPU for hardware-accelerated edge AI. Both parts come with 4 MB of on-chip non-volatile memory and 1 MB of user-accessible RAM.
On show at Electronica
Nordic will showcase the nRF71 Series, including a Nordic-branded module, at this year’s Electronica, in Hall C6, booth 159.
Availability
The nRF71 Series is now sampling with selected customers. Developers can contact their local Nordic sales representative for availability.
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