SoftDevices

A SoftDevice is a wireless protocol stack that complements an nRF5 Series System on Chip (SoC). Nordic Semiconductor provides them as qualified, precompiled binary files. While it is possible to build applications without using a SoftDevice, all nRF5 SDK example applications that use Bluetooth® Low Energy or ANT™ require a SoftDevice.

See the compatibility matrices for detailed information about which SoftDevice versions are supported for each chip. The following table summarizes the usage scenarios for each SoftDevice.

Table 1. SoftDevice overview
Protocol Role Chip SoftDevice
Bluetooth Low Energy Peripheral
  • nRF51422
  • nRF51822
S110
  • nRF52810
  • nRF52832
S112
  • nRF52833
S113
Central or Peripheral
  • nRF51422
  • nRF51822
S120
Central and Peripheral
  • nRF51422
  • nRF51822
S130
  • nRF52832
S132
  • nRF52833
  • nRF52840
S140
ANT  
  • nRF51422
S210
  • nRF52832
S212
Bluetooth Low Energy and ANT Peripheral
  • nRF51422
S310
Peripheral and Broadcaster
  • nRF52810
S312
All roles
  • nRF52832
S332
  • nRF52840
S340