Montreal chip designer SPARK Microsystems has launched a ready-made dual-radio platform for wireless gaming peripherals with Nordic Semiconductor. Announced November 10, it pairs SPARK’s SR1120 ultra-wideband transceiver with Nordic’s nRF54LM20 Bluetooth LE system-on-chip. The aim is to cut the time it takes a mouse, keyboard or headset maker to ship a product with both radios.
The split of work is simple. SPARK’s radio carries the latency-sensitive gaming link. Nordic’s chip runs the device’s software and handles Bluetooth, so the same mouse still pairs with a laptop, tablet or phone without a dongle.
Why gamers would care
Almost every wireless gaming mouse today talks over the crowded 2.4 GHz band, the same one Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and countless household gadgets use. At very high polling rates, where the mouse reports its position 8,000 times a second, that band gets tight, and power drain climbs. Many “wireless” products still tell competitive players to plug in a cable.
SPARK’s LE-UWB (low-energy ultra-wideband) works in the 6 to 9 GHz range instead, away from that congestion. The company pitches it as wired-level latency with low power draw. The SR1120 is its second-generation chip, with twice the data rate of the first, extended range and support for multiple antennas.
Who already uses it
This isn’t a lab demo. SteelSeries uses SPARK’s radio as the only wireless link in its new Sensei Pro and Rival Pro mice, which poll at 8,000 Hz. Japanese peripheral maker ELECOM made the same choice last year for its VM800 gaming mice, dropping 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth entirely.
Those designs went all in on UWB. The new Nordic platform covers the middle ground: a fast dedicated gaming link plus Bluetooth for everyday use. That’s likely to appeal to bigger brands that don’t want to give up compatibility.
What’s missing
No customers, prices or launch dates came with the platform. A UWB mouse still needs a UWB receiver, so it doesn’t work over a PC’s built-in radio the way Bluetooth does. SPARK says it’ll keep working with Nordic on more peripherals for the platform.
The peripherals market is big enough to make it worth the effort. Corsair alone sold $116.5 million of keyboards, mice, headsets and streaming gear in its latest quarter.