nRF5 SDK  v13.0.0-1.alpha
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Introduction

The nRF5 SDK documentation includes descriptions and other reference material to help you understand the various components of the SDK. Examples are provided for development purposes only and should always be tested with your design.

See Getting Started for instructions on how to run the provided examples.

This version of the SDK supports the following SoftDevices:

Note
The nRF5 SDK v13.0.0-1.alpha is a preview of the nRF5 SDK v13.0.0. All modules are considered experimental, and feature scope and APIs might change for the final version.

To download a copy of the SDK documentation for offline use, go to developer.nordicsemi.com.

SDK Release Notes:

nRF5 SDK v13.0.0-1.alpha
------------------------
Release Date: Week 50, 2016
  
This release is an alpha release and should ONLY be used for the
following purposes:
- Exploring and trying out the new Bluetooth 5 features available
  with the new SoftDevices.
- Trying out new features on the nRF52840 chip.
 
Highlights:
- Updated the BLE ATT_MTU Throughput Example (ble_app_att_mtu_throughput)
  to showcase a PHY data rate of 2 Ms/s and coded PHY for long-range 
  transmission.
- Updated the cryptography library to include a CryptoCell CC310
  backend (API changes compared to SDK 12.2.0).
- Updated the BLE LE Secure Connections Multirole Example
  (ble_app_multirole_lesc) to use the CryptoCell CC310 backend of the
  cryptography library (available only for nRF52840).
- Added serialization of the new SoftDevices S132 v5.0.0-1.alpha and
  S140 v5.0.0-1.alpha. Added USB CDC ACM serial as transport layer.
- Dropped support for nRF51 Series devices.
- Dropped support for RTX.
  
The following toolchains/devices have been used for testing and
verification:
- ARM: MDK-ARM version 5.18a
- GCC: GCC ARM Embedded 4.9 2015q3
- IAR: IAR Workbench 7.30.4
  
Supported SoftDevices:
- S140 v5.0.0-1.alpha
- S132 v5.0.0-1.alpha
- S212 v2.0.0
- S332 v2.0.0
   
Supported boards:
- PCA10040
- PCA10056 (limited support; see the "Scope for the nRF52840" section)
- Dynastream's N5DK1 (only for ANT examples)
   
For other devices and boards, see the SDK documentation, section "Using
the SDK with other boards".
   
   
*** Scope for the nRF52840 chip
********************************
All examples and libraries for the new chip must be treated as
experimental.
Some examples have not been ported to run on nRF52840. Check the
existing example projects to see which targets are supported.
   
The following SDK features are supported on the new nRF52840 chip:
  - Most BLE, hardware peripheral, and NFC examples (with some
    exceptions; see the available example projects for details)
  - Peripheral HAL and drivers (both for existing and new peripherals)
  - Cryptography library including CryptoCell CC310 backend
  - NFC Type 2 Tag and Type 4 Tag  
  - Secure DFU (only with micro-ecc backend)
  - Serialization of the SoftDevices S132 v5.0.0-1.alpha and
    S140 v5.0.0-1.alpha with UART and USB CDC ACM transport layers
  
The following SDK features are not supported on the new nRF52840 chip yet:
   - ANT
   - DTM
   - ESB and Gazell
   - FreeRTOS
   - Eddystone
      
      
*** New features
*****************
   
** BLE **
- Updated the BLE ATT_MTU Throughput Example to demonstrate the use of 
  Bluetooth 5 features:
    - PHY data rate of 2 Ms/s (nRF52832 and nRF52840)
    - Coded PHY for long-range transmission (nRF52840 only)
 
** NFC **
- Added a layer of abstraction for NFC OOB pairing, the NFC BLE Pairing
  Library (nfc_ble_pair_lib).
- Added a central and a peripheral NFC BLE example that use the new NFC
  BLE Pairing Library:
  - Heart Rate Collector Application with NFC pairing (ble_app_hrs_nfc_c,
    to be used with the Adafruit shield)
  - BLE Peripheral example: Heart Rate Application with BLE pairing 
    using NFC Pairing Library (ble_app_hrs_nfc_pairing_lib)
   
** Cryptography **
- Added a backend to the cryptography library that supports the ARM 
  CryptoCell 310 hardware-accelerated cryptography engine.
- Updated the LE Secure Connections Multirole Example to showcase how 
  to use the cryptography library with the CryptoCell CC310 backend 
  (nRF52840 only).
 
** Serialization **
- Added serialization of the new SoftDevices S132 v5.0.0-1.alpha and
  S140 v5.0.0-1.alpha.
- Added the transport layer USB CDC ACM (nRF52840 only).

   
*** Changes
************
 
** Drivers and libraries **
- Refactored the RNG driver.
    
** BLE **
- Fixed a bug in the Multi-link Example where disconnecting all central
  links would disable the app_button module.
- Fixed two bugs in the Buttonless DFU Template Application:
  - The example now has writable set on the Control Point characteristic.
  - The example is now using the correct part of the flash, enabling 
    flashing when a bootloader is present.
- Fixed a bug in the ANCS Client Application where NULL-termination of a
  received attribute could happen outside its allocated buffer.
- Fixed a bug in the ANCS Client Application where using RFU attribute 
  IDs could cause illegal memory access.
- Modified the LE Secure Connections Multirole Example to prevent 
  creation of a second link to the same peer simultaneously.
   
** NFC **
- Fixed a bug in NFC Type 2 and Type 4 Tag HAL where NFC would hang when
  the chip was woken up from SYSTEM_OFF and HFXO was started before NFCT
  requested it.
  
** Serialization **
- UART and HCI UART transports have been optimized to better utilize 
  EasyDMA.
 

*** Known Issues
****************
   
** Overall **
- Updating the MDK requires to manually copy the header and linker files
  into the SDK folder (ARM Keil uVision 4, IAR Workbench, ARMGCC).
- When uploading an application to an nRF52 IC using nrfjprog, you must
  provide the "--reset/-r" argument or powercycle the board.
   
** BLE **
- Some examples might have excessively verbose logging.
- Examples that use the Peer Manager might assert when deleting bonds,
  because advertising is started twice.
- In the Proximity Application, writing "High Alert" to the AlertLevel
  characteristic of the Link Loss Service does not trigger a high alert
  when the link is lost.
- When an Android device is used as a peripheral, it sends slave
  security request with the MITM bit set. The central applications in
  the SDK will reject the security request (Pairing Failed) because
  they do not support MITM.
- Advertisement intervals in the Eddystone Beacon Application are not
  verified. Clients must ensure that the configured advertisement 
  interval is within the valid range. Note that EID/eTLM configurations 
  might require advertisement intervals larger than the default value.
   
** NFC **
- NFC Type 2 and Type 4 Tag HAL modules require using TIMER4 on nRF52832.
- Type 2 Tag on nRF52840 chips might fail unpredictably.
- Some mobile phone apps cannot write Type 4 Tag ("NFC Tool" seems to 
  be okay to use).