Nordic Semiconductor is expected to further strengthen its roadmap for next-generation wireless products, including Nordic multi-protocol SoCs and Wi-Fi, cellular IoT, and DECT NR+, by gaining unrestricted access to Arm's cutting-edge processor and security technologies.

Nordic announced on the 15th that it has signed a multi-year ATA (Arm Total Access) licensing agreement with semiconductor design and software platform company Arm.

This ATA license provides access to the widest range of Arm® IP, tools, support, and training across Nordic's current and future products, including multi-protocol, Wi-Fi, cellular IoT, and DECT NR+ solutions.

This new agreement extends the companies' long-term partnership, which began with Nordic's Arm-based nRF51™ Series multiprotocol Systems-on-Chip (SoC) launched in 2012. Nordic has shipped billions of chips using Arm technology to date.

Arm is a leading provider of energy-efficient processor designs and software platforms, with Arm products powering advanced computing in more than 270 billion chips worldwide.

Nordic's currently available nRF51™, nRF52™, nRF53™, nRF54L™, and nRF54H™ Series multiprotocol SoCs, and nRF91™ Series cellular IoT and DECT NR+ Systems-in-Package (SiPs), utilize Arm Cortex®-M class microprocessors.

Nordic also leverages design tools and related Arm IP in its products, enabling easy development of application software running on Arm devices. Nordic's future product roadmap also includes chips utilizing Arm IP.

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with Arm with this ATA license agreement,” says Svein-Egil Nielsen, Nordic’s CTO and Senior Vice President of R&D. “Our close collaboration with Arm has significantly helped establish Nordic as a leading supplier of low-power wireless technology. Building on this, our product roadmap now includes the most advanced application processors, more powerful processors capable of running machine learning (ML) models, and multi-core solutions.” “This agreement provides unrestricted access to cutting-edge processors and security technologies required for Nordic products,” he said.

“Emerging workloads in edge AI are driving the need for more compute capabilities in embedded devices,” said Paul Williamson, senior vice president and general manager of the IoT business line at Arm. “Nordic’s Arm-based solutions are being used in everything from the smart home to connected health and industrial automation. The ATA license will enable Nordic to offer an even broader range of Arm-based edge solutions to our customers by providing them unprecedented access to the comprehensive range of Arm technologies and a robust ecosystem of software and development tools.”

This agreement will enable Nordic to develop complete end-to-end solutions to support future IoT devices across key industries, including smart homes, smart cities, industrial automation, healthcare, and wearables. Many of these applications require powerful processor resources capable of running complex software and machine learning models without compromising battery life.

Nordic's fourth-generation multiprotocol SoC, including the nRF54H20, is leading the way to this future. The nRF54H20 features multiple Arm Cortex-M33 processors and cutting-edge security features. Furthermore, the SoC recently demonstrated world-leading processing efficiency and exceptional processing performance in the EEMBC ULPMark®-CoreMark benchmark. These performance highlights the potential of this SoC to support innovative IoT products that were previously impossible.

Arm ATA provides easy access to the widest range of the latest and most advanced Arm IP products, tools, support, and training. This comprehensive, advanced access to IP from ATA provides continual access to the IP throughout the project lifecycle, the flexibility to iterate and explore multiple times, and simultaneous support for multiple different products under development, removing technical and commercial barriers to entry.