Nurlink Launches NB-IoT and GNSS SoC Powered by CEVA-Dragonfly NB2 IP

NK6010 Rel.14 Cat-NB2 all-in-one SoC integrates baseband, RF FE, RF TxRx, PMU, GNSS and application processor, delivering ultra-low power, low cost cellular IoT solution compatible with all NB-IoT frequency bands and major global carriers

MOUNTAIN VIEW and SAN DIEGO, Calif., – February 20, 2019 – In advance of MWC19™, CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA), the leading licensor of signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors for smarter, connected devices, and Nurlink, a fabless IC design company specializing in cellular IoT wireless communications, today announced the introduction of Nurlink’s NK6010 3GPP Rel.14 eNB-IoT System-on-Chip (SoC) powered by the CEVA-Dragonfly NB2 IP solution.

NK6010 is a highly cost and power efficient NB-IoT SoC designed specifically to enable narrowband connectivity in massive IoT devices such as smart meters, wearables, asset trackers and industrial sensors. The SoC, built around the CEVA-Dragonfly NB2 solution, incorporates RF front-end, RF transceiver, cellular baseband, power management unit and application processor, all highly-integrated to minimize the size and cost of the solution. It supports all NB-IoT frequency bands and major global carriers, ensuring smooth and rapid certification of devices on any NB-IoT commercial network around the world. The SoC also includes an extremely low-power multi-GNSS subsystem, supporting GPS/Beidou/Galileo/GLONASS global navigation systems, to ensure highly-accurate device tracking and locating, worldwide.

“We developed NK6010 to meet the exceptional demand for NB-IoT chipsets to power the multitude of new use cases and applications that narrowband cellular connectivity serves,” said Dr. Xiaohua Kong, Nurlink CEO. “The CEVA-Dragonfly NB2 enabled us to massively accelerate our time-to-market by providing many of the key building blocks for our SoC design, already silicon proven and pre-integrated. In addition, through the programmable nature of the Dragonfly solution, our engineering team were able to add our innovation during the communication system development and SoC customization. This framework eventually helped us to create a truly differentiated product. Our path from licensing to silicon was achieved in under one year, and we’re now engaged with operators worldwide to certify our SoC.”

Michael Boukaya, vice president and general manager of the wireless business unit at CEVA, stated: “NB-IoT has reached critical mass, with more than 60 operators around the world already supporting the standard and dozens more launching coverage imminently. Now the drive towards ultra-low cost NB-IoT chipsets and modules has begun and Nurlink, powered by our CEVA-Dragonfly NB2 IP solution, is one of the early entrants into this fast growing space. We applaud their efforts to reach the market so quickly and look forward to monitoring their success.”

The CEVA-Dragonfly NB2 IP solution is a modular technology, composed of the CEVA-X1 IoT processor, an optimized RF Transceiver, baseband, and a protocol stack to offer a complete Release 14 Cat-NB2 modem IP solution that significantly reduces time-to-market and lowers entry barriers. It is a fully software-configurable solution and can be extended with multi-constellation GNSS and sensor fusion functionality. The IP includes a reference silicon of the complete modem design, including an embedded CMOS RF transceiver and PA, an advanced digital front-end, physical layer firmware, and a protocol stack (MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS). For more information, visit https://www.ceva-dsp.com/product/dragonfly.

About Nurlink

Nurlink Technology, founded in 2017, is a fabless IC design company with subsidiaries and offices in California, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Leveraging its world-class talents in RF analog, modem, GNSS, and SoC systems and software, Nurlink Technology commits to creating the best RF/SoC chips for powering the next-generation cellular IoT wireless communications, i.e. mMTC, while enabling significant cost and performance advantages for customers. The current product portfolio from Nurlink Technology includes NB-IoT and cat-M SoCs, serving numerous markets including smart meter, smart city, wearables, asset tracking, and more. For more information visit http://www.nurlink.com.

About CEVA, Inc.

CEVA is the leading licensor of signal processing platforms and artificial intelligence processors for a smarter, connected world. We partner with semiconductor companies and OEMs worldwide to create power-efficient, intelligent and connected devices for a range of end markets, including mobile, consumer, automotive, industrial and IoT. Our ultra-low-power IPs for vision, audio, communications and connectivity include comprehensive DSP-based platforms for LTE/LTE-A/5G baseband processing in handsets, infrastructure and cellular IoT (NB-IoT and Cat-M) enabled devices, advanced imaging and computer vision for any camera-enabled device, audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. For artificial intelligence, we offer a family of AI processors capable of handling the complete gamut of neural network workloads, on-device. For connectivity, we offer the industry’s most widely adopted IPs for Bluetooth (low energy and dual mode) and Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) up to 4x4). Visit us at www.ceva-dsp.com

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