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Nordic Semiconductor has announced its entry into the Wi-Fi wireless IoT market with the launch of the nRF7002, an ultra-low power, dual-band Wi-Fi 6 companion IC.
Nordic Semiconductor is now one of just a few companies offering all three of the world’s most popular wireless IoT technologies: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular IoT.
The nRF7002 is described by Nordic as a ‘companion IC’ which means it is designed to provide seamless Wi-Fi connectivity and Wi-Fi-based locationing (SSID sniffing of local Wi-Fi hubs) when used alongside Nordic’s existing products. These include the nRF52 and nRF53 Series multiprotocol Systems-on-Chip (SoCs), and nRF91 Series cellular IoT Systems-in-Package (SiPs).
The nRF7002 can also be used in conjunction with non-Nordic host devices.
The launch of the nRF7002 follows Nordic’s 2020 acquisition of the development team, core Wi-Fi expertise, and Wi-Fi IP tech assets of Imagination Technologies Group.
W-Fi forms an integral part of the smart home Matter protocol championed by Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung, and hundreds of other companies in consumer IoT. By adding Wi-Fi to its product range Nordic will now be able to support all three wireless protocols used in Matter. Namely: Bluetooth LE for commissioning, Thread for low power mesh networking, and Wi-Fi for high-speed wireless applications.
“We were able to bring our first Wi-Fi IC to market very quickly as a result of acquiring an extremely capable Wi-Fi team alongside a portfolio of Wi-Fi assets that team had already developed,” said Nordic CTO/EVP of R&D and Strategy, Svein-Egil Nielsen. “Nordic has also ensured that developing Nordic-based Wi-Fi 6 applications will be as simple as developing any other Nordic wireless IoT application, including using the same development tools and nRF Connect SDK.”
“The new Wi-Fi team’s relentless hard work to enable Nordic to launch its first Wi-Fi product so soon deserves huge recognition,” continued Mike Davis, Nordic’s Wi-Fi Systems & Software Director. “They knew Wi-Fi was the number one missing capability requested by Nordic customers. And they knew Nordic’s customers needed this capability quickly.”
The nRF7002 is supplied in a 6 x 6mm QFN package and is sampling now.
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“The launch of the nRF7002 follows Nordic’s 2020 acquisition of the development team, core Wi-Fi expertise, and Wi-Fi IP tech assets of Imagination Technologies Group.”
Ummm, alarm bells are going off in my head: Imagination Technologies Limited is a British semiconductor and software design company owned by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, a private equity fund based in Beijing that is ultimately owned by the Chinese government. On 30 November 2020, Imagination Technologies announced the sale of its Ensigma Wi-Fi development operations and Wi-Fi IP tech assets to Nordic Semiconductor.[1]
Question: So what if any hooks and/or Trojans does the Chinese Communist Party have buried in this WiFi IP bought by Nordic Semiconductor? At best, I would be very careful using this Nordic WiFi chip. At worst I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole!
* References:
1. Imagination Technologies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagination_Technologies