Introduction

This KBA lists the major changes in each Bluetooth SDK version (and patches) in a condensed form to highlight:

• New features
• Deprecated features or relevant notes
• Critical fixes (for patch releases)

Please note that these are not official release notes, it is only meant to bring attention to some of the most meaningful changes between SDK versions. Please continue referring to the official release notes document for further details. This is ordered chronologically from the most recent SDK release (or patch).

Bluetooth SDK 2.12.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 2.6.x] (7th of June 2019)

New features:

• Advertising packet chaining which brings supports for up to 1650 bytes of advertising data using extended advertising.

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• Some modified and deprecate APIs

Bluetooth SDK 2.11.5 (8th of May 2019)

Note:

• Platform software change only - no impact on Bluetooth SDK

Bluetooth SDK 2.11.4 (26th of April 2019)

Critical fixes:

• Apploader did not work for EFR32BG12P232F512GM68 part

Bluetooth SDK 2.11.3 (22th of March 2019)

New features:

• EFR32[B|M]G21 support

Critical fixes:

• When the maximum number of connections are established and one of them drops, the stack may fail to restart advertising if the command le_gap_start_advertising is issued quickly after the connection_closed event has been raised.

Bluetooth SDK 2.11.2 (26th of February 2019)

New features:

• New configuration flag in Bluetooth Security Manager for only accepting connections from bonded devices.

Bluetooth SDK 2.11.1 (28th of January 2019)

New features:

• Bluetooth 5.1 - GATT caching

Critical fixes:

• Application fails to compile if BGAPI commands from the sync class are used

Bluetooth SDK 2.11.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 2.5.x] (14th of December 2018)

New features:

• BT5 periodic advertising for EFR32xG12 and EFR32xG13
• Whitelisting (Central side). (KBA: Whitelisting)
• SoC-Empty restructuring in the SDK (KBA: Bluetooth SoC-Empty example)

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• EFR32BG1 supports advertisement sets and scan request reporting but it does not support advertising or scanning on secondary advertising channels.

Bluetooth SDK 2.10.1 (2nd of November 2018)

Critical fixes:

• Scanning on LE Coded PHY stops randomly with simultaneous advertising.
• Advertising on LE Coded PHY will force 1M PHY connections to drop
• AFH does not reuse blocked channels after timeout

Bluetooth SDK 2.10.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 2.4.x] (14th of September 2018)

New features:

• New scan response event le_gap_extended_scan_response which provides addition data such as primary and secondary advertisement PHYs, RSSI and advertisement channel.
• New command le_gap_set_discovery_extended_scan_response added to enable the new scan response event. When enabled it replaced the le_gap_scan_response event.

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• Bluetooth Developer Studio (BTDS) plugins. BT SIG has discontinued the BTDS.

Critical fixes:

• AFH will now pass EN 300 328 (CE) compliance tests

Bluetooth SDK 2.9.2 (13th of July 2018)

Critical fixes:

• Advertising may stop after a random period of time if more than one advertisement set is enabled

Bluetooth SDK 2.9.1 (22nd of June 2018)

Critical fixes:

• AFH will cause unstable Bluetooth connections while doing background scanning

Bluetooth SDK 2.9.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 2.3.x] (25th of May 2018)

New features:

• Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) which enables TX power support to go above 10dBm
• RF path compensation
• Increased size for extended advertising packets (191 bytes)
• TX Power setting per advertisement set

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• Compiler version support updated: IAR 7.80.4 and GCC 7.2.1 (other versions have not been tested)

Bluetooth SDK 2.8.1 (23rd of March 2018)

Critical fixes:

• Memory leak when it connects to a remote device using extended advertising PDUs
• Mapping to wrong channels as a slave device which will cause packet loss or connection timeout
• When advertising on LE Coded PHY a scan request may freeze the device

Bluetooth SDK 2.8.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 2.2.x] (23rd of February 2018)

New features:

• Support for extended advertisement and scanning (KBAs: Extended Advertising Example and Advertising and Scanning with LE Coded PHY)

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• Changes to le_gap command class (KBA: Changes to the le_gap class of API functions)

Bluetooth SDK 2.7.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 2.1.x] (20th of December 2017)

New features:

• Bluetooth stack is no longer delivered as binary but as a set of libraries
• OTA functionality is now separated from the stack as a stand-alone application (AppLoader)

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• Legacy bootloader has been removed and it’s no longer supported so it’s mandatory to use gecko bootloader (KBA: Bootloader changes in BLE SDK and Why Doesn't My Sample Application Run?)

Bluetooth SDK 2.6.2 (21st of September 2018)

Critical fixes:

• Fixed high packet error rate in the case of low input power.

Bluetooth SDK 2.6.1 (13th of December 2017)

Critical fixes:

• Fixed a scanning issue, which made scanning to stop over time

Bluetooth SDK 2.6.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 2.0.x] (27th of October 2017)

New features:

• Wi-Fi Coex support
• Link layer packet size extensions to 251 bytes

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• Legacy bootloader deprecated (KBA: Bootloader changes in BLE SDK)
• HW configurator has been removed from the Bluetooth SDK and example applications have been restructured with regard to mcu/board/app initialization (KBA: Migration guide to Bluetooth SDK 2.6.x and 2.7.x)
• The example projects do not link to SDK files but rather copy them onto the workspace project

Bluetooth SDK 2.4.2 (16th of August 2017)

Critical fixes:

• Fix for sleep wake up timing for EFR32xG1

Bluetooth SDK 2.4.1 (14th of July 2017)

Critical fixes:

• Fix to handle concurrent scanning and advertising in a more robust way

Bluetooth SDK 2.4.0 [Gecko SDK Suite 1.1.x] (9th of June 2017)

New features:

• Support for EFR32xG13 devices which also brings support for LE Coded PHY
• Polymorphic GATT (KBA: Polymorphic GATT)
• GCC compiler support for version 4.9.3
• Bonding handling algorithm (KBA: The New Bond Replacement Algorithm)
• Integration into Gecko SDK Suite

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• BGScript no longer supported
• Most hardware APIs have been removed

Bluetooth SDK 2.3.2 (26th of May 2017)

Critical fixes:

• Fixed OTA DFU issue that would brick device when interrupted
• Fixed stack freeze when subscribing to notifications when the remote GATT server has been disconnected
• Fix for pairing timeout issue with MAC OS
• BGTool fix to build BGScript applications correctly

Bluetooth SDK 2.3.1 (10th of April 2017)

Critical fixes:

• Fixed device reset caused by protocol timer wrap-around
• Fixed device reset cause by overlapping DCDC settings when using high TX power
• Fixed RTCC timer overflow issue
• OTA related fixes

Bluetooth SDK 2.3.0 (10th of March 2017)

New features:

• Support for EFR32xG12 devices which also brings support for 2M PHY
• ATT MTU size increased to 250 bytes
• GCC beta support
• Bluetooth 5 advertisement sets
• Gecko bootloader introduced (KBA: Bootloader changes in BLE SDK)

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• BGScript is not supported for EFRxG12 parts and has been deprecated for EFRxG1
• Most hardware APIs have been deprecated

Bluetooth SDK 2.1.1 (21st of December 2016)

Critical fixes:

• Fixed memory leak in pairing process using secure connections
• Fixed firmware update issue preventing update from 2.0.x to 2.1.x

Bluetooth SDK 2.1.0 (5th of December 2016)

New features:

• ATT MTU size increased to 126 bytes
• Graphical GATT Editor introduced
• Apple HomeKit SDK (R7 compliant)
• OOB pairing for secure connections

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• IAR 7.80.2 now required
• Bootloader has been updated (KBA: Bootloader changes in BLE SDK)

Bluetooth SDK 2.0.3 (21st of December 2016)

Critical fixes:

• Fix for memory leak in pairing process using secure connections
• Fix for firmware update issue preventing update from 2.0.x to 2.1.x

Bluetooth SDK 2.0.2 (25th of November 2016)

Critical fixes:

• Fix for maximum input signal level test by adjusting automatic gain control levels of the PA.

Bluetooth SDK 2.0.1 (15th of October 2016)

Critical fixes:

• Simplicity Commander update to generate properly formatted EBL firmware update files.

Bluetooth SDK 2.0.0 (16th of September 2016)

New features:

• New Bluetooth 4.1/4.2 features: LE Secure connections, packet extensions (50 bytes link layer packets), dual-topology (KBA: Multi-Slave Multi-Master Dual-Topology example)
• Integration into Simplicity Studio v4 through the package manager (KBA: How to Install SDK 2.0.0)
• Development in C requires IAR version 7.60

Deprecated features or relevant notes:

• SDK 2.0.0 is not backward compatible with 1.0.x versions, meaning that 1.0.x based applications need to be modified to build with 2.0.0 and DFU (UART or OTA) from 1.0.x to 2.0.0 is not possible.