The release of an audio development kit that provides developers with a complete solution for implementing the sound quality, low power consumption, and enhanced wireless stereo capabilities of Bluetooth LE Audio is attracting attention from developers.

Nordic Semiconductor (CEO Choi Soo-chul of Nordic Korea) has launched the nRF5340 Audio Development Kit (DK), a design platform for rapid development of Bluetooth® LE Audio products.

The Audio DK is based on Nordic’s nRF5340 System-on-Chip (SoC), the world’s first wireless SoC to feature two Arm® Cortex®-M33 processors, providing a complete solution for LE Audio development projects.

The nRF5340 Audio DK makes LE Audio projects easier.

It can be very flexibly configured to function as a USB dongle for transmitting and receiving high-quality audio data between a PC and a business headset or TWS earbuds.

This audio DK features two 3.5mm audio jacks for analog 'input' and headphone 'output', five user-programmable buttons and LEDs, Includes an SD card holder for additional storage, a SEGGER J-Link debugger for programming and debugging, and connectors for accessing analog/digital interfaces and GPIO.

Normally this DK is powered via USB, but it also has a battery connector for lithium-ion/lithium polymer batteries.

Current consumption can be measured on the board using dedicated current measurement pins and Nordic's Power Profiler Kit II or other current measurement equipment.

The nRF5340 SoC, the core component of this audio DK, integrates a high-performance application processor with a fully programmable, ultra-low-power network processor.

Based on a dual-core architecture, it delivers high performance and optimal power efficiency. The 128MHz Arm Cortex-M33 application processor (with 1MB of flash and 512KB of RAM) is ideal for processing audio codecs such as LC3 and custom applications.

The 64MHz Arm Cortex-M33 network processor (with 256KB flash and 64KB RAM) is performance-optimized for running Nordic's Bluetooth LE Audio RF protocol software.

The nRF Connect SDK, a development platform for the nRF5340 SoC, provides board support for the nRF5340 Audio DK and supports LE Audio, Bluetooth LE, Thread, and other applications.

The nRF5340 Audio DK is available now from Nordic authorized distributors, priced at $169.