nRF54L15/nRF54L05 Zephyr or SoftDevice QDID

[Manieldyers]

It is my understanding that most Bluetooth designs piggyback off of manufacturer QDID's, which are qualified with Bluetooth SIG for specific Bluetooth stacks.

We will be using the nRF54L15/L05 in one of our products and have been using Zephyr and the nRF SDK 2.8.0. We plan to write our production code using the 2.8.0 SDK.

I notice on this page for SDK 1.5.2 it lists several Zephyr versions and the controllers those versions are qualified for https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-1.5.2/page/zephyr/guides/bluetooth/bluetooth-qual.html

On the nRF SDK Latest or nRF SDK 2.8.0 page it talks about the nRF52840 SoftDevice versions that are qualified.

For the nRF54L15/05 will Nordic be qualified designs with Zephyr or with SoftDevices? I was under the impression that SoftDevices were superseded by Zephyr but I may be wrong there.

As we are developing do we need to be targeting a specific SoftDevice or Zephyr version for the nRF54L series?

How can I ensure that I am including the correct SoftDevice in my build?

The graphic below seems to imply that the SoftDevice is controlling the Link Layer, so is it always included in my builds even if I don't explicitly specify it?

Is there an estimated date for QDID's to be issued? Will we need to use a SoftDevice QDID or Zephyr QDID?

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

As we are developing do we need to be targeting a specific SoftDevice or Zephyr version for the nRF54L series?

We qualify the Bluetooth stacks for nRF Connect SDK releases for our devices, so you shoud luse a nRF Conenct SDK release that is qualified, and refer to that qualified design when you qualify your product.

How can I ensure that I am including the correct SoftDevice in my build?

Make sure you use a official released version that is qualified (when that is available), and make sure that you use the SoftDevice controller (which is the only Bluetooth controller we currently support) and not the Zephyr LL.

The graphic below seems to imply that the SoftDevice is controlling the Link Layer, so is it always included in my builds even if I don't explicitly specify it?

Yes. The SoftDevice controller is the default Bluetooth controller on all nRF devices, so when you build a project that include the Bluetooth stack it will include the SoftDevice controller unless you specifically opt to use the Zephyr LL (which you should not).

Is there an estimated date for QDID's to be issued? Will we need to use a SoftDevice QDID or Zephyr QDID?

This will also happen for the nRF54 devices but please ask sales for the timeline. You will refer to separate QDID for the host and controller. Both will be available from us, in the same way as for other devices (see here for the nRF52840 QDIDs for reference).