Bluetooth 5

[RichieJH]

I guess all the Bluetooth members saw the email from the SIG about the next version of Bluetooth and how it is confirmed to have double the range, quadruple the speed and "significantly" bigger advertisement payloads.

A few questions for our friends at Nordic:

1. Will the increased range need to be reflected in silicon or will it be achieved with the current versions of the nRF51/52? Is it expected that antenna circuitry will need to change or no?

2. What is the expected turnaround for the SD and SDKs for the new features? Is there any information on timings that can be shared at this stage?

Many thanks, RJH

Edit 17 June 2016

So the big reveal from Bluetooth SIG yesterday. Actually 4x the range, 2x the speed and 8x transmission payload. Very impressive. Press release here www.bluetooth.com/.../-bluetooth5-quadruples-rangedoubles-speedincreases-data-broadcasting-capacity-by-800

[Anne van Rossum]

We're especially interested in the support for the functionality for connectionless services like location-relevant information and navigation.

[MartinBL]

Hi

For questions about upcoming features and releases please contact our regional sales manager for your area. If you don't know who that is you can send me a PM and I'll put you in touch with him.

[John Leonard]

Range increases necessitate silicon changes. Nordic is as always committed to supporting the latest Bluetooth developments, stay tuned.

[Dave_couling]

SIG updates like this reflects acceptable specifications for radios that qualify under the Bluetooth Spec. So this range increase means that devices with longer range are still compliant. They didn't invent something that increased the range.

Before, if your chip or module exceeded +10dB, it would not be considered compliant under the SIG.

-DC

[RichieJH]

Oh goody, can't wait to hear more. Shame it won't apply to current silicon though.