u-blox NORA-B2 brings multiprotocol wireless connectivity to mass market
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u-blox has announced a new series of professional grade, multiprotocol modules designed to help companies across a broad spectrum of IoT market segments bring new wireless products to market faster. The ‘NORA-B2’ series of modules are built on Nordic’s next generation nRF54L15 SoC, and provide a cost-effective entry point for wireless connectivity for IoT applications.
“NORA-B2 brings ultra-low power wireless connectivity to the mass market,” said Hari Vigneswaran, the product manager at u-blox. “This will streamline wireless projects in terms of complexity, cost and footprint, opening new use cases across healthcare, smart home, industrial automation and indoor positioning.”
Next generation processing power
The NORA-B2 series comprises the globally certified ‘NORA -B201’ and ‘NORA-B206’ modules, both based on Nordic’s next-generation nRF54L15 SoC. The SoC integrates a 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor, a RISC-V co-processor and an ultra-low power multiprotocol 2.4 GHz radio. The generous 1.5 MB non-volatile memory (NVM) and 256 KB RAM can run multiple wireless protocols concurrently, including Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Matter, Zigbee, Amazon Sidewalk and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols. The NORA-B201 comes in a 10.4 by 11.2 by 1.9 mm form factor and provides an antenna pin for applications requiring a customised antenna solution. The NORA-B206 comes in a 10.4 by 14.3 by 1.9 mm form factor and integrates a high-performance patented PCB antenna.
Both NORA-B2 modules offer additional features and interfaces including NFC, SPI, I2C, 31 GPIOs and 14-bit ADC, an operating temperature range of -40 to +85°C, as well as improved security. Key market segments include industrial automation, medical and healthcare, telematics and smart cities and buildings.
Easy-to-use SDK
“Our business relationship with Nordic has only become stronger over the years, so it is natural for us to expand our portfolio now with modules built on these next-generation SoCs,” said Håkan Svegerud, the senior director and the head of product management and strategy at u-blox. “In addition to the good relationship, Nordic has high quality customer support and a very easy to use software development kit which we see as important for our customers.”
u-blox has also announced the powerful ‘ALMA-B1’ series modules that employ Nordic Semiconductor’s new nRF54H20 SoC targeted at high-end wireless end products. The ALMA-B1 series comprises the globally certified ‘ALMA-B101’ and ‘ALMA-B106’ modules, both taking advantage of the nRF54H20’s multiple Arm Cortex-M33 processors and multiple RISC-V coprocessors, as well as 2 MB of NVM and 1 MB RAM, capable of powering machine learning (ML) and sensor fusion at the edge.
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