Nordic Semiconductor unveils latest LTE-M/NB-IoT, Bluetooth 5.1, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, and Zigbee solutions for complex IoT applications at CES 2020

Wireless IoT specialist Nordic Semiconductor ASA today announces it will host a range of demonstrations highlighting the capabilities of its low power cellular IoT and low power, short range wireless products at CES 2020. The demonstrations will take place on the company’s booth (#44949 in Sands Exhibition Hall (Wearables)) at CES. The world’s leading consumer electronics exhibition, CES is organized by the U.S.-based Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and will be held in Las Vegas, NV, from January 7 to 10, 2020.

 

On the booth, the Nordic Thingy:91 multisensor cellular IoT prototyping platform, which incorporates Nordic’s nRF9160 System-on-Chip (SiP) with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GPS, will form the basis of a cellular IoT (LTE-M) asset tracker connected to nRF Connect for Cloud, Nordic’s software tool for Cloud connectivity. The company will also demonstrate a Bluetooth® Low Energy (Bluetooth LE)-to-cellular IoT (LTE-M) bridge. The demonstration, based on the nRF9160 DK (Development Kit) which incorporates Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP and the nRF52840 advanced Bluetooth 5, Thread and Zigbee multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC), will show how Nordic technology can be used to connect inexpensive short range wireless sensors to the Cloud.   

Notable among the booth’s short range wireless exhibits will be the nRF5340 dual processor SoC supporting Bluetooth 5.1, Bluetooth mesh, NFC, Thread, and Zigbee. The nRF5340 is the latest product to join Nordic’s short range wireless portfolio and is the world’s first wireless SoC with two Arm® Cortex®-M33 processors. The nRF5340 combines a high performance application processor with a fully programmable, ultra low power network processor, plus advanced root-of-trust and trusted execution security features, into a low power multiprotocol SoC ready for complex IoT applications. A demonstration will highlight the processing capabilities of the nRF5340 application processor by using it to run the first-person shooter game, Doom, while driving an external LCD display. At the same time, the network processor will run the RF protocol software to enable gameplay using a Nordic-powered micro:bit wireless game controller.

 

Other exhibits will show Nordic’s nRF52840 advanced multiprotocol SoC powering smart home applications. The demonstrations show Nordic’s proven Thread, Bluetooth LE, and Bluetooth mesh solutions in action. A further exhibit shows Zigbee smart-lock and -lighting controlled by an Amazon Echo and a Bluetooth LE-to-Zigbee bridge. Bluetooth LE, Thread, and Zigbee play a key role in ecosystems such as Amazon’s Alexa Smart Home, Apple’s HomeKit, Google’s Weave, and the Zigbee Alliance’s Dotdot data models. In turn, these ecosystems will form the basis of Connected Home over IP, a proposed new open standard for smart home connectivity using Internet Protocol (IP). Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance have backed the formation of a new working group to drive this smart home initiative.

 

Other demonstrations will show Bluetooth 5 high throughput and multilink capability. A further Amazon Echo-based demonstration will show an implementation of Alexa Gadgets, interactive companion devices that work with Amazon Echo and Amazon Alexa and include functionality beyond simple voice-control. In the demonstration, the smart speaker will wirelessly connect to an e-Paper product to display appointments, shopping lists, and weather information.

 

In addition, Nordic will demonstrate the capabilities of its nRF52811 and nRF52833 Bluetooth 5.1 Direction Finding SoCs. Bluetooth 5.1 ushers in a new range of location services applications and the demonstration will show a Quuppa solution for tracking devices and people as they move around the Nordic booth. 

 

All the PCs on the booth will be supplied with Nordic nRF52 Desktop for mice and keyboard Bluetooth LE connectivity. And booth visitors will be able to see Nordic 2.4GHz proprietary solutions used for high performance gaming applications.

 

“The recent introduction of our nRF9160 SiP for cellular IoT, nRF5340 dual processor SoC, and Bluetooth 5.1 Direction Finding SoCs, in addition to the more established Bluetooth 5, Thread and Zigbee solutions, has opened up hundreds of new wireless IoT applications that weren’t possible even at the time of the previous CES event,” says Geir Langeland, Nordic Semiconductor’s Director of Sales & Marketing. 

 

“This year’s CES demonstrations will show exactly what’s possible with the latest Nordic technology. And because Nordic’s strategy is to ensure that the silicon, software, and development tools are available at the same time, the CES 2020 demonstrations aren’t just concepts. Instead, engineers seeing the demos at CES can start using the ideas as the start point for new designs as soon as they get back to their offices.”  

 

International CES boasts five decades of success. At the 2019 event CES welcomed over 175,000 industry professionals and showcased over 4,500 exhibiting companies across 269,500m2 of exhibit space.