Using NRF-7002 wifi companion chip with non-Nordic SoC

[ozzie]

• Describe the issue(Question in my case):

  • I recently acquired an NRF-7002DK from Digikey, and I have been pleased messing around with the Zephyr SDK so far. I like the capabilities of the SDK and the hardware that the NRF-7002 brings to the table. 
  • I noticed that the NRF-7002 is being interacted with on the development kit via an NRF-5430 host SoC, and I began to read the documentation about how the two interact.
  • I know other host controllers are built using Nordic SoCs that are equally capable of performing as a host as the NRF5430, if not more; they just do not come packaged with the Zephyr SDK from their respective manufacturers, such as the Particle B4xx series(https://docs.particle.io/assets/pdfs/datasheets/b404x-b404-b402-datasheet.pdf)
  • My question: If I wanted to implement just the NRF-7002 wifi companion IC in one of my circuits, would I be able to use this companion IC without a Nordic chip as a host and without the Zephyr SDK?

  For example, would you implement a circuit with an ESP32 that can communicate directly with the NRF-7002 via a chip that can bridge the QSPI gap such as this one using libraries such as this one? Or even a Particle series chip such as the B402 SoM without needing a QSPI bridge, considering an underlying Nordic SoC already exists?

  Or is the best avenue to implement another host SoC like the NRF-5430? I have existing circuits to which I would like to add the NRF-7002 to. However, I am evaluating our implementation options as far as adding it to our system is concerned.

  Thanks, 

  Ozzie

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

At this moment, you can see the supported features listed in our software maturity section, if you expand that:

https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/software_maturity.html#wi-fi-feature-support

 

This also includes the SoCs that we support with the nRF7002 companion device.

For example, would you implement a circuit with an ESP32 that can communicate directly with the NRF-7002 via a chip that can bridge the QSPI gap such as this one using libraries such as this one?

The QSPI device here is a flash IC, which acts as a slave. This does not provide any bridge.

 

Or is the best avenue to implement another host SoC like the NRF-5430? I have existing circuits to which I would like to add the NRF-7002 to. However, I am evaluating our implementation options as far as adding it to our system is concerned.

I would recommend that you use one of the SoCs that we support at this time.

 

Kind regards,

Håkon