NRFICE allows for rapid prototyping of mobile peripheral and edge computing devices. With fewer wires and no programming dongles, many things are possible. Educators can provide experimentation hardware to students with minimal bring-up. Our community can easily develop new sample projects. Once underway, any of the complete sample builds can be chosen in a list on the mobile app and immediately programmed into the board with a phone, no other wires/dongles needed.

A Powerful Combination of nRF5340 and ICE40UP5K

We believe the combination of the nRF5340 and ICE40UP5K is the best chip set for development of edge computing applications. The ICE40UP5K already has examples from Lattice that interface to image sensors and implement AI models for gesture detection, and there are many more existing open source projects for the ICE40 family that perform cutting edge tasks.

In using both, developers and students are getting real world development experience on an FPGA family that is also cost effective in volume production environments. This is in contrast to a lot of DIY projects using Arduino, and others, where the skills learned are not easily carried into industry where cost, size, and manufacturability are serious issues.

Now, importantly, you’ve got your ICE40 for edge computing/AI tasks, but how does it communicate with the outside world? There’s always an MCU to work the marionette strings. We think the nRF5340 is the best choice for development. Nordic semi, as well as module makers like Fanstel, have a rich list of parts at various performance and price points, so when you’ve got your design proven on NRFICE, you can then choose the most cost effective alternative.


MidiBass - Audio MIDI Processor

  • Submitted to the MIDI Association 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards

  • Prototype Audio-MIDI processor

  • MIDI In, MIDI Out

  • Guitar In, Balanced audio out

  • USB-C power and USB Audio Interface

  • Display and rotary encoder for controls

  • Bass guitar to MIDI with no latency

  • Internal wavetable synthesizer

  • Patent pending technology

AI Robotics Research

  • Swarm Intelligence on physical robots

  • Supervised and unsupervised learning

  • Neural networks, particle swarm optimization, gramatical evolution, genetic programming, overall swarm AI development platform.

Oids Robot

  • Oids are small, less than 70mm diameter, 2 wheeled robots.

  • Nordic nRF52840 5 SOC

  • ST Micro VL53L1X time of flight multi-zone range sensor

  • 9 axis IMU (accelerometer/gyroscope/magnatometer)

  • 4 DC motor drivers (2 wheels, 2 for expansion)

  • RGB LEDs

  • Infrared beacon LED

  • 2 ambient light sensors

  • 2 MEMS PDM microphones

  • Infrared data receiver

  • USB Type C Device, typically a COM port

  • One physical button

  • One audio speaker

  • BL-5C batter (charges over USB)

  • Durable plastic body