ARM and Nordic Semiconductor to jointly develop Bluetooth low energy-enabled devices

ARM and Nordic Semiconductor have announced an agreement to incorporate Bluetooth low energy (BLE) solutions with the ARM mbed IoT device development platform.

The collaboration is aimed to enable developers to quickly and easily create new Bluetooth-connected devices and applications that leverage Nordic’s system on chips (SoCs) which are based on the ARM Cortex-M processor series.

This agreement will help to drive the innovation and deployment of BLE-enabled devices in key growth markets including wearables, mobile accessories, fitness, toys, healthcare and consumer electronics.

“There is an immense market opportunity to connect new generations of physical devices such as toys and wearables with mobile devices, and shape the interactive user experience,” commented Nick Hunn, chief technology officer at WiFore.

“A key piece of technology enabling this growth will be Bluetooth low energy. Nordic Semiconductor provides the right solutions to address these hardware needs, and with support from the ARM mbed platform and development ecosystem, they will open their technology up to a vast new developer audience who can realise the potential of this technology.”

Nordic has already developed ULP wireless chips that can run for many years on small batteries, which are the size of watch batteries. These chips are already found in products such as wireless PC peripherals, gaming controllers, sports and fitness sensors, advanced multimedia controllers and digital/satellite TV (set-top box) remote controls.

ARM mbed is a collaborative project providing hardware and software building blocks to developers for rapid development of ARM-based intelligent connected devices. This includes open-source code for microcontrollers, radios, peripherals, middleware and cloud services.

“The Internet of Things will be powered by small, ultralow-power SoCs that need to be cost-effective for the consumer opportunities, and this agreement brings together two technology leaders to get these solutions into developers’ hands more efficiently,” said Svenn Tore Larsen, chief executive officer, Nordic Semiconductor.