Nordic Semiconductor

Nordic Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in ultra low power (ULP) short-range wireless communication. The company’s range of 2.4GHz transceiver and transmitter devices are employed by some of the world’s leading brands in a wide variety of applications like wireless keyboard and mouse, game Controllers, and intelligent sports equipment.

Nordic is a member of the ANT+ Alliance and has successfully collaborated with ANT Wireless of Cochrane, Canada, since 2005. ANT devices– using Nordic 2.4GHz transceivers and the proven ANT protocol – have been used in millions of wireless sensor nodes across the world. ANT is perfectly suited for any kind of low data rate sensor network topologies in Personal Area Networks (PANs) and practical Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs).

Nordic’s products are all manufactured in state of the art semiconductor process technologies through strong, long-term relationships with world-best manufacturing facilities. Nordic is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. All operations are managed according to the ISO 9001:2000-approved quality Assurance system.

Whilst still in its infancy, the Internet of Things (IoT) is in part evolving by using Bluetooth Smart as an underpinning technology. Bluetooth Smart is rapidly being adopted for short-range wireless connectivity between compact, coin cell-powered accessories using RF sensors and smartphone ‘hubs’ supporting associated software applications. The ARM mbed initiative is a collaborative industry project that plans to nurture the IoT. The initiative delivers tools and fundamental open-source hardware and software building blocks for the rapid development of ARM-based devices.

The collaboration between Nordic Semiconductor and ARM has resulted in Nordic’s nRF51822 System-on-Chip (SoC) which combines a Bluetooth v4.1-compliant 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio with an ARM Cortex-M0 CPU core on a single chip optimized for ultra-low power operation. The nRF51822 Series offers developers the ideal platform for designing the wirelessly-connected sensors that will help turn the IoT from a technological concept into reality as the mechanisms to transfer IP data from sensor nodes begin to appear.

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