Pin to Pin Compatibility info needed for nRF52 BLE SoCs

[justNordic]

We are evaluating multiple use-cases (tags, gateways, listeners etc.) in our company and we would like to know the pin-2-pin compatibility for these following SoCs so as we can select them based on cost and features and SoC change after DVT build etc.

	nRF52810	nRF52832	nRF52811	nRF52833	nRF52840
nRF52810	YES
nRF52832		YES
nRF52811			YES
nRF52833				YES
nRF52840					YES

Can someone who is aware of all of these SoCs HW please help me in putting YES for pin-2-pin compatibility ? For this, any Package Options could be used e.g. QFN, WLCSP etc.

[Simonr]

Hi

I've filled in the matrix for you below:

	nRF52810	nRF52832	nRF52811	nRF52833	nRF52840
nRF52810	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
nRF52832	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
nRF52811	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
nRF52833	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES
nRF52840	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES

To summarize, the nRF52810/11/32 are all pin to pin compatible with each other (QFN48 only for the nRF52832), and the nRF52833/40 are pin to pin compatible. Keep in mind that none of these are 100% software compatible however, and there are some changes in the values of peripheral components (please see the reference schematics for the respective SoCs). Hopefully, you'll find this helpful

Best regards,

Simon

[justNordic]

Thank you Simon for this info and yes.. there will be few SW changes !!

So basically... we can use 810/811 for our BLE Tag design and 833/840 for Gateway devices where a little-bit more processing is needed. 

[Simonr]

Sounds like a good plan!

Best of luck and regards,

Simon

[justNordic]

Hi Simon,

Need one more help..!!

After digging a little-more, we see that 833 and 840 are not "drop-in" pin compatible. Is this understanding correct ? So I can't simply replace 840 with 833 in my HW? We are thinking to do our Gateway based on 840 first and then after couple of hundred units, changing SoC to 833 won't work ? Of course there's change in Antenna.

Also, is there any "drop-in" pin compatibility in 810/832/811 ?

[Simonr]

Hi

Indeed, the nRF52840 and nRF52833 are not drop-in compatible, as some of the pins on the nRF52833 have to be N.C. that could be used for various things on the nRF52840. Among these pins are P0.19 and the DCCH on the 840. If you take care not to use these pins in your design there shouldn't be any problems hardware-wise I believe (antenna network might need some changes), as all the peripheral components are similar. 

The QFN48 packages of the nRF52810/11/32 should all be drop-in compatible with one another.

Best regards,

Simon