Global Tech Tour introduces a single-chip Bluetooth Smart solution

The Global Tech Tour will commence in Boston, MA, on 5^th October, 2015, before moving on to eight other major U.S. cities culminating in San Jose, CA, on 22^nd October. The tour then moves on to seven locations across Europe including Finland, the U.K., France and Germany before finally taking in another 14 locations in India, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Korea, and Japan. The tour finishes in Osaka on the 10^th December, 2015.

Each session of the tour will comprise a single day with the main objective of enabling attendees to get up and running with the nRF52 Series SoCs. The training sessions will cover basic ULP wireless connectivity applications as well as how to set up a Bluetooth Smart application, all while maximising the nRF52 series SoCs' power efficiency.

The nRF52 series SoCs feature a 64MHz ARM Cortex-M4F processor, 512kB Flash and 64kB RAM, a multiprotocol Bluetooth Smart, ANT and proprietary 2.4GHz radio with -96dB RX sensitivity, 5.5mA peak RX/TX currents and an on-chip RF Balun. The SoCs also feature a unique on-chip NFC tag for consumer-friendly Touch-to-Pair and offer new levels of design flexibility unmatched by any existing Bluetooth Smart solution. Target applications include IoT, wearables, wireless charging, beacons, sports and fitness sensors, remote-controlled toys and building automation.

The Global Tech Tour training sessions will be conducted using Nordic's nRF52 series SDK which includes example code for a Bluetooth Smart application. The day's agenda will comprise an introduction to the nRF52 Series SoC, radio, power management, standard and advanced peripherals, NFC and solutions to support the growing IoT market.

The training includes a breakdown of a Bluetooth Smart application to demonstrate how to make the most of the power management system to achieve optimal power consumption and show how to use and configure an S132 Bluetooth Smart 'SoftDevice'. The S132 SoftDevice is Nordic's self-contained Bluetooth Smart RF protocol software ('stack'), compliant with Bluetooth version 4.2, which supports concurrent Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster and Observer roles. This session will also allow delegates to set up and configure the ANT S212 SoftDevice and the combination Bluetooth Smart/ANT S332 SoftDevice with the nRF52 series SoC.

"The first Global Tech Tour educated delegates in how to get the most out of the nRF51 series and since that tour concluded we have seen some very clever Bluetooth Smart applications being introduced by companies whose engineers attended the sessions," says Geir Langeland, Director of Sales & Marketing, Nordic Semiconductor.

"Now we have introduced the next-gen of our Bluetooth Smart solutions, the nRF52 series, which is based on the nRF51 series proven architecture but is a much more powerful device, it is important that we give those same engineers and new customers an early chance to familiarise themselves with the hardware and software. This year's Global Tech Tour training sessions will be conducted by the engineers that actually designed the nRF52 series and as such will provide the perfect opportunity for developers to learn about the new SoC."