Seeed launches XIAO boards on Nordic's nRF54LM20A SoC
Image: Nordic Semiconductor
Seeed Studio has released two wireless development boards, the XIAO nRF54LM20A Sense and XIAO nRF54LM20A, built around Nordic Semiconductor's nRF54LM20A SoC paired with its nPM1300 power management IC. Both target battery-powered IoT applications including wearables, smart home, industrial IoT and smart sensing, according to Nordic.
SoC and PMIC combination
The nRF54LM20A integrates a 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 processor, 512 KB RAM, 2 MB on-chip non-volatile memory, a 128 MHz RISC-V coprocessor, and a multiprotocol 2.4 GHz radio. Supported protocols include Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Channel Sounding, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Zigbee, Matter and proprietary 2.4 GHz links up to 4 Mbps.
The nPM1300 PMIC combines battery charging, voltage regulation, power management and fuel gauging in one device, which Nordic says reduces the need for multiple discrete power components. Both boards add 28 GPIOs, USB Type-C, 8 MB external flash, NFC and an external antenna interface within the 21 by 17.8 mm XIAO form factor.
Sensing variant and security features
The XIAO nRF54LM20A Sense variant additionally includes a 6-axis IMU and a digital microphone, intended to let developers prototype voice, audio, motion and gesture applications without extra hardware.
- Secure boot and secure firmware updates
- Secure storage with TrustZone-enabled trusted execution environment
- Cryptographic acceleration with side-channel protection and tamper detection
Kevin Yang, Senior Product Manager and Maker Team Lead at Seeed Studio, said the nRF54LM20A represented a natural evolution from earlier XIAO boards based on Nordic's nRF52840 and nRF54L15, citing higher processing performance, larger memory and improved power efficiency. He added that Nordic's hardware documentation and reference designs helped the engineering team integrate the SoC and PMIC into the compact form factor.
Development is supported through the nRF Connect SDK, Zephyr RTOS and PlatformIO. Seeed Studio is also preparing an additional XIAO nRF54LM20B variant, according to Nordic, to further expand the family for low-power, edge AI devices.
