Nordic Semiconductor introduces nRF71 Series for battery-powered Wi-Fi

Nordic Semiconductor has introduced the nRF71 Series, a family of ultra-low-power systems-on-chip that brings Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, and edge AI together. It is aimed at intelligent devices that must run for years on a battery.

The series builds on the ultra-low-power design, software, and tools that have established Nordic in Bluetooth LE. According to the company, it uses up to 20 times less standby power than the current-generation nRF70 Series Wi-Fi products. Nordic identifies smart home, wearables, and industrial IoT as applications for the series.

AI inference can run directly on a single chip without an external AI processor, which the company says allows devices to respond faster, use less power, and require fewer components. The integrated Axon Neural Processing Unit runs machine learning models 10 to 17 times faster than the 256 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor alone. Keyword spotting, anomaly detection, and image classification are described as practical on battery-powered devices.

Developers can also run ultra-small models built from their own data using Nordic's Neuton software on the processor alone. Separately, two independent radios, a Wi-Fi radio and a 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio from the nRF54 Series, receive simultaneously. Devices can keep a Wi-Fi connection to the cloud while listening for Bluetooth LE or Thread traffic, and neither protocol waits on the other.

The first parts are the nRF7120 and nRF7120E. The nRF7120 supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6, while the nRF7120E adds tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and the Axon NPU for hardware-accelerated edge AI. Both include 4 MB of on-chip non-volatile memory and 1 MB of user-accessible RAM. The nRF71 Series is sampling with selected customers, and developers can contact a local Nordic sales representative for availability.

“Edge AI will be part of every connected device, but for those that run on a battery, Wi-Fi has demanded a power budget they could not afford,” said Kjetil Holstad, EVP Wi-Fi and Power Management, Nordic Semiconductor. Nordic will showcase the series, including a Nordic-branded module, at Electronica in Hall C6, booth 159. The company expects the series to open new options for battery-powered Wi-Fi development.