u-blox has recently announced the ALMA-B2 standalone BLE 6.0 and 802.15.4 module family built around the Nordic Semi nRF54LM20 Cortex-M33 wireless microcontroller with a dedicated NPU for low-latency Edge AI applications.
There are four specific product variants in the u-blox ALMA-B2 series: ALMA-B201, ALMA-B206, ALMA-B211, and ALMA-B216, all of which support Bluetooth 6.0 and Bluetooth Channel Sounding for distance measurement. They also support IEEE 802.15.4, including Thread, Zigbee, and Matter, as well as Nordic’s proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol and NFC. The company also mentions that the nRF54LM20B-based ALMA-B211 and ALMA-B216 variants include an Axon NPU that performs machine learning tasks up to 15 times faster and with greater energy efficiency than running the same tasks on the main processor alone.
u-blox ALMA-B2 Series Specifications:
- Wireless SoC – Nordic Semiconductor nRF54LM20A (for ALMA-B201 and B206) or nRF54LM20B (for ALMA-B211 and B216)
- CPU
- Arm Cortex-M33 application processor clocked at up to 128 MHz
- RISC-V coprocessor running at 128 MHz
- Memory – 512 kB of RAM
- Storage – 2 MB of Non-Volatile Memory (NVM)
- AI accelerator – Built-in Axon NPU (only for ALMA-B211 and ALMA-B216)
- Wireless
- Bluetooth LE 6.0 with PHY rates of 125 kbit/s, 500 kbit/s, 1 Mbit/s, and 2 Mbit/s
- Bluetooth Channel Sounding and Bluetooth LE long range (coded PHY)
- IEEE 802.15.4 supporting Thread, Zigbee, and Matter
- Nordic Proprietary 2.4 GHz protocol and NFC
- +10 dBm maximum radiated output power (EIRP)
- CPU
- Antenna – External antenna connector ALMA-B201 and ALMA-B211 or PCB antenna for ALMA-B206 and ALMA-B216
- I/Os via LGA pads
- Up to 66 GPIO
- 1x USB High Speed
- 1x HS-SPI + 6x SPI
- 6x TWI/I2C
- 1x HS-UART + 6x UART
- 3x PWM
- SAADC (14-bit)
- PDM
- QDEC
- 7x timers
- Security – Arm TrustZone, secure boot, secure key management, secure FOTA, hardware crypto-accelerator, physical tamper detection, and debug access port protection
- Power
- Supply – 1.71 to 3.60 V
- Consumption – 4.8 mA in Active TX (@ 0dBm), 4 uA in Standby, and 700 nA in Sleep mode
- Dimensions
- 10.4 x 11.2 x 1.9 mm (Antenna pin variants)
- 10.4 x 14.3 x 1.9 mm (Internal PCB antenna variants)
- Weight – < 1.0 gram
- Operating Temperature – -40°C to +85°C
The ALMA-B2 modules use an open CPU architecture. This allows users to write and run their own applications directly on the module using the built-in Arm Cortex-M33 processor. So, there is no need for an external host MCU, which saves BOM cost and PCB space, and development is done with Nordic’s nRF Connect SDK.
The company also introduced two EVK variants in their announcement – the EVK-ALMA-B211 (external antenna) and EVK-ALMA-B216 (internal PCB antenna), but at the time of writing, dedicated product pages or user guides for the boards are not yet published on the u-blox website (they usually appear a bit later when samples become available).
Early samples of the ALMA-B2 series will be available in the coming weeks. More details, block diagrams, and technical documents can be found on the u-blox product page, and some additional information is available in the press release.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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