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.
Features & Specifications
NRFICE
Arduino UNO compatible form factor and 0.1” pinout
9 V - 12 V barrel power connector and 5 V 3 A regulator
128 Mbit external flash memory, accessible from ICE40 or nRF
Fanstel BT40 module with trace antenna FCC approved
Four buttons, reset for each of ICE40 and nRF, and a user programmable button for each
Two RGB leds, one each for nRF and ICE40
USB-C for JLink-OB, providing dongle-free programming and debugging of nRF5340 as well as pass through VCOM serial port to nRF5340
USB-C for nRF5340, providing VCOM serial port, and other USB implementations per code
Wireless loading of example projects for nRF and ICE40 with Android app
NRFICE Android App
Open source: copy and adapt to your ideas
Wireless programming and configuration of nRF5340 and ICE40 FPGA
Incorporate re-programming of FPGA into your product design for ultimate flexibility
RGB Led control example
Other examples coming soon
JLink-OB
Link OB is an on-board debug probe
Same features as J-Link BASE
Fully compatible with J-Link BASE
Compatible with most IDEs
Virtual COM Port
nRF5340
High-performance application processor
128/64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 with FPU and DSP instructions
1 MB Flash + 512 KB RAM
8 KB 2-way set associative cache
Fully-programmable network processor
64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 with 2 KB instruction cache
256 KB Flash + 64 KB RAM
Next level security
Trusted execution with Arm TrustZone
Hardware accelerated cryptography with Arm CryptoCell-312
Secure Key Storage
Secure bootloader with root-of-trust and DFU
NFC
Full range of digital interfaces with EasyDMA
Full-speed USB
96 MHz encrypted QSPI
32 MHz high-speed SPI
105 °C extended operating temperature
1.7 - 5.5 V supply voltage range
ICE40UP5K
5280 LUTs
Ultra-low Power, 100 uA standby current typical
1024 kb Single Port SRAM
120 kb sysMEM™ Embedded Block RAM
Hardened I2C Interfaces
I3C interface
Two Hardened SPI Interfaces
Low Frequency Oscillator – 10 kHz
High Frequency Oscillator – 48 MHz
24 mA Current Drive RGB LED Outputs
On-chip DSP, Signed and unsigned 8-bit or 16-bit functions, Multiply-Accumulate (MAC)
