Nordic Semiconductor Introduces nRF71 Chips With Wi-Fi and Edge AI

Nordic Semiconductor introduces the nRF71 Series, which combines Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread and on device AI on one chip, the company said in a press release. The chips use up to 20 times less standby power than the current nRF70 Series.

The first models are the nRF7120 and nRF7120E. The nRF7120 supports dual band Wi-Fi 6, while the nRF7120E adds tri band Wi-Fi 6E and an Axon neural processing unit. The unit runs machine learning models 10 to 17 times faster than the 256 MHz Arm Cortex M33 processor alone. Both chips include 4 MB of nonvolatile memory and 1 MB of user accessible RAM.

Separate Wi-Fi and 2.4 GHz radios can receive simultaneously, allowing devices to maintain a cloud connection while listening for Bluetooth Low Energy or Thread traffic. The chips target smart home hubs, Matter bridges, security products, wearables and industrial sensors. The series is now sampling with selected customers, and developers can ask their local Nordic sales representative about availability.