Nordic Semiconductor today announces that Penclic, a Stockholm, Sweded-based computer accessories developer, has selected Nordic’s nRF52810 Bluetooth® Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) System-on-Chip (SoC) to provide the connectivity for its ‘Penclic KB4’ Bluetooth 4.0 wireless keyboard.
The Penclic KB4 keyboard provides native multi-platform support for Bluetooth 4.0 (and later)-enabled PCs, MacOS, as well as smartphones and tablets, and is designed for both the office and home consumer market. Nordic’s nRF52810 SoC provides low latency Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity between the keyboard and the target device. The SoC provides Bluetooth 5 support including 2x on-air raw data bandwidth (2Mbps), allowing faster data transfer between the keyboard and the user’s device, as well as increased responsiveness.
Combining contemporary design, function, and ergonomics, the keyboard is manufactured from anodized aluminum, weighs 500g, and comes in a 435 by 138 by 10mm form factor, offering a range of keyboard layout options. The keyboard employs a 750mAh Li-Poly battery, providing between two- and four-months of battery life between recharge depending on use, thanks in part to the low power characteristics of the Nordic SoC. The nRF52810 SoC has been engineered to minimize power consumption with features such as the 2.4GHz radio’s 4.6mA peak RX/TX currents and a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with Nordic’s nRF51 Series SoCs.
Nordic’s nRF52810 multiprotocol SoC combines an 64MHz, 32-bit Arm® Cortex® M4 processor with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5, ANT™, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software), with 192kB Flash memory and 24kB RAM, as well as advanced 128-bit AES encryption. The nRF52810 SoC is supplied with the latest version of Nordic’s S112 SoftDevice, Bluetooth 5-compliant RF protocol software.
“We selected the nRF52810 SoC for its small size, low power consumption, and AES encryption,” says Olle Wahlqvist, Vice President and CTO, Penclic. “Furthermore, the large amount of data and experience shared in Nordic’s DevZone cut down trial and error time during development significantly. It’s a great resource with good response time and direct answers.”