Nordic’s nRF52840 Bluetooth LE SoC is Nordic’s most advanced ultra low power wireless solution. The SoC supports complex Bluetooth LE and other low-power wireless applications that were previously not possible with a single-chip solution. The SoC combines a 64MHz, 32-bit ARM® Cortex® M4F processor with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5, ANT™, IEEE 802.15.4, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF software) with 1MB Flash memory and 256kB RAM. A new radio architecture with on-chip PA provides features -96dB RX sensitivity, a maximum output power of 8dBm, and a total link budget of >110dBm. Designed to address the inherent security challenges of the IoT, the nRF52840 SoC incorporates the ARM® CryptoCell-310 cryptographic accelerator, offering best-in-class security.
The SoC is supplied with Nordic’s S140 SoftDevice, a Bluetooth 5-certified software protocol stack for building long range and high data Bluetooth LE applications. The S140 SoftDevice offers concurrent Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster, and Observer Bluetooth LE roles.
“Many manufacturers and integrators are now choosing Bluetooth 5 for their Commercial IoT applications, such as asset tracking and smart lighting,” says Ben Corrado, CEO at Rigado. “But using Bluetooth 5 for large-scale IoT deployments requires a solution that addresses flexibility, interoperability, and security. That’s what Rigado’s Edge Connectivity Suite provides.
“The nRF52840 SoC’s full support of Bluetooth 5—including long range, fast data bandwidth rate, and advertising extensions—as well as the computing capability of the ARM Cortex M4F processor, make it an attractive option for the Edge Connectivity Suite and our customers who want to build smarter devices.”
To help companies rapidly prototype Bluetooth 5 IoT solutions, Nordic and Rigado have also partnered to create the Rigado IoT Development Kit (DK), which combines the Vesta IoT Gateway with Nordic’s Thingy:52 sensor. The Nordic Thingy:52® DK enables app developers to configure, test, and demonstrate Bluetooth LE IoT devices linked to mobile apps and Cloud platforms, without needing firmware coding skills or development tools. The Rigado IoT DK includes sample software that makes it easy to capture sensor information from the Nordic Thingy:52 and analyze and display it through Rigado’s Gateway Web app, or stream sensor data to Amazon Web Services where it is in turn visualized in a Cloud-based dashboard.
The Rigado family of integrated edge connectivity solutions based on the nRF52840 will be available in Q1, 2018. Samples, and the Rigado IoT DK, are available immediately.