Nordic Semiconductor — ~1 surfaced prefix (MA-L); BLE silicon, OUI ≠ device brand (often randomized)
Summary
- // what this is
- Nordic Semiconductor ASA is registered to MAC prefix
F4:CE:36in the IEEE OUI database. When a device's MAC address begins withF4:CE:36, that block was registered by Nordic Semiconductor ASA — the OUI identifies the maker of the network hardware, which is not always the brand on the device. - // analyst note
- A Nordic OUI suggests a BLE/IoT wearable or sensor built on an nRF chip; its rarity in tables is expected because many BLE addresses are randomized.
About this vendor.
Nordic Semiconductor holds at least one MA-L block (F4:CE:36) registered as "Nordic Semiconductor ASA" at Otto Nielsens veg 12, Trondheim, Norway. These OUIs are associated with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and low-power-wireless SoCs — the nRF51, nRF52, nRF53, and nRF91 series, plus Thread/Zigbee/Matter — found in wearables, IoT sensors, beacons, and peripherals. The key analyst point is twofold: a Nordic OUI is a chipset-OUI flag (it identifies a device built on a Nordic BLE/wireless chip regardless of brand), and — critically — many Nordic-based BLE devices use randomized or production-assigned advertising addresses rather than the registered Nordic OUI, so the Nordic OUI appears far less often in tables than the chips are actually deployed. For triage, a Nordic OUI suggests a BLE/IoT wearable or sensor built on an nRF chip, and its rarity in ARP/DHCP tables is expected because many BLE addresses are randomized.
- IEEE assignment
- ~1 surfaced prefix (F4:CE:36) → "Nordic Semiconductor ASA", registered Trondheim, Norway [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L
- Registry / block size
- MA-L; ~1 block surfaced in third-party tallies [Confirmed] — maclookup.app (IEEE-sourced)
- HQ / country
- Otto Nielsens veg 12, Trondheim NO-7052, Norway [Confirmed] — maclookup.app
- Company status
- active [Confirmed] — nordicsemi.com
- Device types
- BLE and low-power-wireless SoCs (nRF51/52/53/91), Thread/Zigbee/Matter — wearables, IoT sensors, beacons, peripherals [Confirmed] — maclookup.app
- Notable products
- nRF51/nRF52/nRF53/nRF91 wireless SoCs
- Verified prefix
- F4:CE:36 [Confirmed] — maclookup.app
- Special note
- A Nordic OUI is a chipset-OUI flag. CRITICALLY, many Nordic-based BLE devices use randomized/production-assigned advertising addresses rather than the registered Nordic OUI, so the Nordic OUI appears far less often than the chips are deployed. The IEEE registry publishes no assignment dates, so none is stated here. [Confirmed]
- Related vendors
- none significant (silicon supplier to many brands)
- Analyst note
- A Nordic OUI suggests a BLE/IoT wearable or sensor built on an nRF chip; its rarity in tables is expected because many BLE addresses are randomized.