Software SIM for low-power cellular IoT: Nordic Semiconductor and Onomondo collaboration

Onomondo's SoftSIM reduces SIM and BoM (Bill of Materials) costs, simplifies design and reduces power consumption in Nordic's nRF91 Series based cellular IoT end products. This collaboration makes it easier to add SoftSIM, lowers costs and shortens time to market.

Traditional SIMs for cellular IoT devices can be costly as each device needs its own physical SIM card. However, SoftSIM offers a platform-independent software SIM alternative, providing a more cost-effective and power-efficient option. In addition, Arm TrustZone provides a secure solution using a security environment.

Because cellular IoT leverages pervasive cellular infrastructure, network access requires each end device to carry a unique Subscriber Identification Module (SIM). Traditional SIMs are physical devices that must be inserted into cellular products, and later developments such as non-physical eSIMs still require additional supporting hardware. SoftSIM is the "world's first" 100 percent software IoT SIM alternative that is platform independent. The product is downloaded from the Cloud and then run as software by the nRF9160 SiP's embedded ARM Cortex-M33 application processor.

By combining Onomondo's SoftSIM with Nordic's low-power nRF9160 SiP(System in Package), users have a 'out-of-the-box' connectivity solution that eliminates the need to manufacture and ship physical SIM cards. SoftSIM eliminates the need for a physical SIM socket in the final device design, reducing material costs and extending battery life with low power consumption.

Notes: The nRF9160 is a compact, highly integrated System-in-Package (SiP) that makes the latest low power LTE technology and advanced processing and security accessible, and easy to use, for a wide range of single device low power cellular IoT designs.