nRF Connect SDK Essential

Software development kit for building IoT products with Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, cellular IoT, Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Zigbee, Matter and more

nRF Connect SDK is a unified and flexible software development kit for building products based on all of Nordic’s nRF54, nRF53, nRF52, nRF70 and nRF91 Series wireless devices. It offers a framework for developing low-power and secure IoT devices that can scale from simple implementations for constrained devices and use cases, to the most feature-rich and sophisticated applications.

It is based on the open source Zephyr project combined with Nordic proprietary software, offered as a single package optimized for Nordic’s portfolio of wireless products. This powerful and comprehensive blend provides developers with a breadth and depth of functionality available out of the box: samples, wireless stacks, networking protocols, drivers, security, and much more. This ensures that developers can focus their time and energy where it matters most, in adding value and differentiation to their application.

The nRF Connect SDK can be extended via Add-ons that provide additional components contributed by both Nordic as well as partners. Add-ons can provide a variety of functionality, from applications, samples, protocols or more complete SDKs for specific technologies and use cases.

In parallel with Zephyr-RTOS based application development, there is the additional nRF Connect SDK Bare Metal option for developing simple Bluetooth LE applications on the nRF54L Series, that do not benefit from an RTOS or advanced features. This offers developers additional flexibility to choose the software development approach that better fits their use case.

The nRF Connect SDK is supported by Nordic’s extensive and industry-leading suite of development tools, including nRF Connect for Desktop, nRF Connect for Mobile, and nRF Connect for VSCode that offers a full-fledged IDE environment to develop your next breakthrough IoT application on Nordic hardware and software.

To onboard developers on nRF Connect SDK as quickly as possible and accelerate their learning curve, Nordic offers online interactive courses through the Nordic Developer Academy, covering a variety of topics and including hands-on exercises.

Documentation
Install and Get started
nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals Course

nRF Connect SDK Bare Metal option

Webinar

Webinar - Introducing nRF Connect SDK Bare Metal option

Launch video

For simple Bluetooth LE applications

On nRF54L Series

The nRF Connect SDK Bare Metal option is the ideal solution for developing simple Bluetooth LE  applications on Nordic nRF54L Series, that do not benefit from an RTOS or advanced features.

It brings the popular SoftDevice to nRF Connect SDK, offering architecture and API similarity to nRF5 SDK that eases migration of an existing codebase from nRF52 Series to nRF54L Series.

graphical user interface

nRF Connect SDK Bare Metal option introduces a single-bank DFU solution, leaving more NVM available for the application. A single-bank DFU solution will also be available for Zephyr RTOS based development in nRF Connect SDK at a later stage. Additionally, the SoftDevice and nrfx components in nRF Connect SDK Bare Metal option are RTOS-agnostic, enabling their usage together with a 3rd party RTOS outside of nRF Connect SDK.

As part of the nRF Connect SDK it coexists with Zephyr RTOS based development, offering an upgrade path to access all the SDK features, making it future-proof to the expanding needs and requirements of new designs.

Learn more about nRF Connect SDK Bare Metal option in our technical documentation, as well as in the DevZone blog below.

SoftDevice S115

Available now

Memory Optimized peripheral-only Bluetooth LE protocol stack

SoftDevice S115 is a memory-optimized Bluetooth® Low Energy protocol stack for the nRF54L Series devices. Up to 2 connections as a Peripheral can be run concurrently with a Broadcaster.

Key features
  • Peripheral and broadcast role
  • Configurable attribute table size
  • Custom UUID support
  • ATT and SM protocols
  • LE Secure connections
  • GATT and GAP APIs
  • GATT client and server
  • Long ATT MTU
  • LE Data Packet Length Extension
  • Bluetooth LE GAP RSSI (QoS)
  • 1M and 2M PHY
  • RTOS-agnostic (can be used with a 3rd party RTOS outside of nRF Connect SDK environment)

SoftDevice S145

Coming later

Central and multirole Bluetooth LE protocol stack

SoftDevice S145 is a central and multirole Bluetooth® Low Energy protocol stack for the nRF54L Series devices. It supports up to 5 concurrent links in all roles (Broadcaster, Central, Observer, Peripheral). It will be available later this year.