Nordic Semi nRF54H20 Cortex-M33 + RISC-V wireless SoC supports Bluetooth 5.4, LE Audio, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Matter, and more

Nordic Semi nRF54H20 is a 320 MHz multiprotocol wireless SoC with several Arm Cortex-M33 and RISC-V cores, support for Bluetooth 5.4 and greater with features like LE Audio and Bluetooth mesh, as well as Thread, Matter, and so on.

It is the first part of the fourth generation nRF54 family manufactured with a 22nm process, and its application processor doubles the processing power (2x CoreMark) of the Arm Cortex-M33 application core in the nRF5340 SoC and embeds up to 2MB flash, 1MB SRAM.

nRF54H20 preliminary specifications and highlights:

• CPU
  • Application core  – Arm Cortex-M33 @ up to 320 MHz with 2 MB Flash + 1MB SRAM
  • Network core –  Arm Cortex-M33
  • Several RISC-V cores (for low power?)
• Wireless
  • Bluetooth 5.4 LE with direction-finding, Bluetooth mesh, LE audio, etc…
  • 802.15.4 radio for Thread, Matter
  • -100 dBm RX sensitivity @ 1 Mbps for Bluetooth LE
  • Up to 10 dBm TX power
• New peripherals
  • High-speed USB (480 Mbps)
  • CAN FD controller
  • 2x I3C
  • 14-bit ADC
• Security
  • Designed for PSA Certified Level 3 IoT security standard
  • Secure Boot, Secure Firmware Update, and Secure Storage.
  • Cryptographic accelerators
• Power consumption – RX current consumption is half that of the nRF5340, so it should be around 1.3 mA in RX at 1 Mbps, and 1.5 mA in RX at 2 Mbps @ 3V
• Manufacturing process – GlobalFoundries 22FDX process node

We don’t have the detailed specifications for the nRF54H20 because it looks like an early announcement. The new chip should be found in advanced IoT applications using a single chip combining application MCU, external memory, and wireless radios, and be integrated into wearables, smart home, medical, and LE Audio applications,

The extra processing power should also make the nRF54H20 SoC suitable for applications demanding complex machine learning (ML) and support for sensor fusion at the (tiny) edge. The lower Rx power consumption compared to nRF5340 will allow more compact batteries or extended battery life for products such as earbuds and wearables.

Nordic Semi says the RF54H20 SoC is now available for sampling to selected customers, and the nRF54 development kit has not been introduced just yet. The company further adds that interested parties should contact their local Nordic sales representative. Additional information may be found on the product page that should be updated with further details over time.

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