Accessible Bluetooth 5 SoC for the widest range of applications

Nordic Semiconductor has announced that it has extended its nRF52 Series of class-leading, high-performance Bluetooth low energy SoCs with the addition of a peripheral and memory-optimized variant, the nRF52810, that represents the most accessible, single-chip Bluetooth 5 solution available on the market today. The SoC brings the key performance benefits of Bluetooth 5 to the most cost-sensitive, high-volume applications. These include: 2x the data bandwidth (2Mbps) compared with the Bluetooth low energy implementation of Bluetooth 4.2; and 8x the broadcasting ability with advertising extensions that increase the advertising packet payload size to 251 bytes for more efficient data transfer, particularly in beacon applications. Example target applications include network-connected sensors and beacon building blocks for the IoT, low-cost wearables, low-cost wireless mice and keyboards for computers and tablets, toys, disposable medical monitoring devices, and basic RF remote controls. "No matter how simple the application, any wirelessly-connected device significantly benefits from the performance benefits that Bluetooth 5 offers," comments Geir Langeland, Nordic Semiconductor's director of sales and marketing. "However, early Bluetooth 5 SoCs were too expensive to be justified for lower-level applications. Nordic has addressed that challenge with the nRF52810 SoC; this low-cost variant not only rounds out our nRF52 Series offerings but it also opens up a whole new world of possibilities for simple, cost-constrained Bluetooth low energy applications. "If the vision of an IoT comprising many billions of interconnected sensors is to be realized," continues Langeland, "those sensors will not only require decent range, throughput, and security but they will also need to be inexpensive to purchase, install, and maintain. The nRF52810 SoC brings that realization a little closer."