Nordic’s new chip brings Wi-Fi and edge AI to battery-powered devices
Nordic Semiconductor has unveiled its nRF71 series of system-on-chips, combining Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Thread and on-device artificial intelligence on a single chip. The company says the new solution offers up to 20 times lower standby power consumption than its current nRF70 series Wi-Fi products.
- The nRF71 combines Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Thread and edge AI on a single chip.
- Nordic says standby power consumption is up to 20 times lower than that of the nRF70 series.
- The Axon NPU can accelerate machine-learning models by a factor of between 10 and 17 compared with the Cortex-M33.
- The nRF7120 supports Wi-Fi 6, while the nRF7120E supports Wi-Fi 6E.
- The first chips are already in sampling with selected customers.
Wireless connectivity and AI on a single chip
Nordic Semiconductor announced the ultra-low-power nRF71 series on November 3. The system-on-chips are designed for battery-powered devices that need to operate for long periods while also requiring Wi-Fi connectivity and on-device artificial intelligence.
The nRF71 series brings Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread and edge AI together on a single chip. According to Nordic, developers can build on the software and development tools already familiar from the company’s Bluetooth LE products.
On-device AI inference does not require an external AI processor. According to the company, this can enable faster responses, lower power consumption and fewer components. Practical applications include keyword recognition, anomaly detection and image classification.
Up to 20 times lower standby power consumption
Nordic claims that the nRF71 series consumes up to 20 times less standby power than its current-generation nRF70 series Wi-Fi products. This energy efficiency could support the development of battery-powered smart home devices, wearables and industrial IoT equipment.
The chips integrate an Axon neural processing unit, or NPU. According to the company, it runs machine-learning models between ten and seventeen times faster than the 256 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor alone. The nRF71 series can also run especially small AI models created with Nordic’s Neuton software on the processor without using the NPU.
Nordic also offers wireless model updates through nRF Cloud. As the company describes it, this allows the application, wireless connectivity and artificial intelligence to operate on a single chip.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and Thread in parallel
The nRF71 series uses two independent radios, with separate radio and processing blocks. One is the Wi-Fi radio, while the other is a 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio derived from Nordic’s latest nRF54 series wireless system-on-chips.
The two radios can receive simultaneously. As a result, a device can maintain its Wi-Fi connection to the cloud while monitoring Bluetooth LE or Thread traffic, without one protocol having to wait for the other.
According to Nordic, the architecture can be used to develop battery-powered smart home hubs, Matter bridges, Thread border routers, Matter-compatible smart locks, security panels, wearables and industrial sensors.
First models already in sampling
The first nRF71 system-on-chips are the nRF7120 and nRF7120E. The nRF7120 supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6, while the nRF7120E includes tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and an Axon NPU for hardware acceleration of edge AI. Both versions feature 4 MB of built-in non-volatile memory and 1 MB of user-accessible RAM.
Nordic is also showcasing the series at this year’s Electronica trade show, including a private-label module. The products are currently in the sampling phase with selected customers. Developers can contact Nordic’s local sales representatives for availability information.
