2019 is a turning point in the semiconductor industry. Many semiconductor companies are facing challenges this year because of the slowdown and decline of the market. It is reported that global semiconductor revenue will reach 429 billion US dollars in 2019, down 9.6% from 475 billion US dollars in 2018, which is the smallest increase in the global semiconductor market since 2009. Last year, the actual production of the global semiconductor industry increased by 22%, but the market only digested 15% of the increase. At present, there are still 7% surplus capacity to be digested. Oversupply will be the biggest challenge for the semiconductor industry in 2019.
Why is the semiconductor industry declining?
There are many reasons for the decline of semiconductor industry. The most direct reason is the trade war and the slowdown of demand growth. Influenced by the rise of trade protectionism in Korea's major semiconductor trading target countries, such as the United States, as well as the financial turmoil in developing countries and the interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, the downside risks of ICT industry exports accumulate. With the intensification of global competition and the increase of overseas production, the production and export of ICT industry will increase slightly and then stabilize. At present, due to the slowdown of growth of smartphones, data centers, automobiles and the demand suppression caused by Sino-US trade friction, the downstream demand of the semiconductor industry is weak, but considering the continuous emergence of innovative applications such as 5G, AI, IOT in the future, the demand recovery of the semiconductor industry is only a matter of time.Adu Technologies ID205 Wearable Device Provides Processing Capability and Wireless Connection Using Nordic nRF52840 SoC
Nordic Semiconductor announced that Andu Technologies, a Shenzhen-based smart wearable device developer, chose to use Nordic's nRF52840 Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE)/Bluetooth 5 Advanced Multi-Protocol System-Level Chip (SoC) to provide core processing and wireless connectivity for its ID205 smart watch.
ID205 smart watch weighs only 39 grams and is fashionable in appearance. It has waterproof function. Users can access and control some functions of smart phone through Bluetooth wireless connection to App, such as call vibration warning, call rejection and music control. It can also be used as wearable health and heart rate monitor with 14 kinds of sports. Pattern.
ID205 smart watches use three built-in sensors powered by Nordic SoC's 64MHz and 32-bit Arm Cortex < M4F processors: a heart rate sensor that monitors and collects user's heart rate data 24 hours a day for personal health analysis; and a heart rate sensor that calculates activity indicators such as walking, burning calories and sleeping. An accelerometer for sleeping time and a light sensor for automatically adjusting the brightness of the device screen according to the variation of external light.
After the sensor collects the raw data, Aidu Technologies calculates the health and activity indicators of users through independently developed algorithms, and then sends the data to the user's Bluetooth 4.0 (or updated version) smartphone APP "Very FitPro", which is compatible with iOS and Android, using the low-power Bluetooth connectivity provided by Nordic SoC. Through this matching mobile application, users can view their own activity data and trends, and update the settings and functions of wearable devices by wireless means.
ID205 smart watches use rechargeable 210 mAh lithium polymer batteries. Depending on the usage, full charge can provide 10 to 15 days running time or about 45 days standby time, which is attributed to the ultra-low power operation characteristics of Nordic nRF52840 SoC. NRF52840 uses full automatic power management system to minimize power consumption. Compared with nRF51 series devices, the power consumption of nRF52840 is reduced by up to 80%.
Nordic nRF52840 protocol SoC is Nordic's most advanced ultra-low power wireless solution to support complex low power Bluetooth and other low power wireless applications that previously could not be achieved through a single chip solution. NRF52840 has Bluetooth 5, Thread 1.1 and Zigbee PRO (R21) and green power proxy specification authentication. Its dynamic multi-protocol function uniquely supports concurrent wireless connection of each protocol.
NRF52840 combines M4F processor and 2.4 GHz multi-protocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5, ANT, Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4 and 2.4 GHz RF protocol software), with 1 MB Flash memory and 256 kB RAM. The new radio architecture with on-chip power amplifier has - 95 dBm RX sensitivity (under 1Mbps low power Bluetooth), 8 dBm maximum output power and 103dBm total link budget. Compared with Bluetooth 4.2, the chip supports all functions of Bluetooth 5, including 4 times range or 2 times original data bandwidth (2Mbps). NRF52840 SoC uses Arm CryptoCell-310 encryption accelerator to provide the best security of its kind. It is designed to solve the inherent security problems faced by the Internet of Things.
This SoC device is provided with Nordic's S140 protocol stack, which is used to build Bluetooth 5 authentication software stack for remote and large data low power Bluetooth applications. Nordic's software architecture includes a clear separation between RF protocol software and Edu technology application code, which ensures that the protocol stack is not destroyed when developing, compiling, testing and validating application code, and simplifies the development work. The S140 protocol stack provides concurrent Bluetooth roles for central, peripheral, broadcaster and observer, and supports high throughput, remote mode, and broadcasting extensions.
"We chose Nordic nRF52840 SoC for ID205 smart watches because the chip is compatible with Bluetooth 5.0, and the performance of its ARM Cortex-M4 processor can achieve faster and more complex computing, as well as Flash and RAM memory allocation," said Mr. Ryanhe, Vice President of Aidu Technology.
"In addition, the separation of application code and protocol stack, as well as the Nordic Software Development Kit (SDK), are also key features that we consider when making decisions. This allows us to concentrate on developing application solutions without having to spend time dealing with Bluetooth connections."
"Nordic has a good reputation in the industry, and its technology and products are widely recognized in the market. In addition to the excellent performance of the chip itself, Nordic's community's friendliness to developers and rapid support from application engineers are also important decision-making factors.
