Nordic Semiconductor introduces full feature support for Matter 1.0 in nRF Connect SDK

Nordic’s unified software development kit brings support for all features of 1.0 version of Matter over Thread associated with the standard’s formal adoption

Nordic Semiconductor announces that the release of the latest version of its nRF Connect SDK (software development kit) brings developers support for all the features in the 1.0 version of Matter over Thread. This support is related to the Connectivity Standard Alliance’s (“the Alliance”) formal adoption of Matter specification version 1.0. Matter is emerging as an industry-changing standard for smart home device interoperability.

“Nordic has played a major role in the Matter initiative since the very beginning, so we are pleased to introduce the nRF Connect SDK with full Matter over Thread support,” says Krzysztof Loska, a Technical Product Manager with Nordic. “This support is ready for Matter 1.0 adoption and allows developers to get started immediately on Matter over Thread development using Nordic’s nRF52840 and nRF5340 SoCs.”

nRF Connect SDK is Nordic’s scalable and unified development tool for building products based on the company’s nRF52 and nRF53 Series Systems-on-Chip (SoCs), the nRF91 Series System-in-Package (SiP) plus the just-announced nRF7002 Wi-Fi 6 Companion IC. nRF Connect SDK 2.1.0 includes full Matter over Thread and adds experimental support for Matter over Wi-Fi for the nRF5340 SoC in combination with the nRF7002 Companion IC.

Nordic has played a major role in the Matter initiative since the very beginning, so we are pleased to introduce the nRF Connect SDK with full Matter over Thread support

Krzysztof Loska, Technical Product Manager

The incorporation of Matter over Thread comes after Nordic was the first company to earn a Thread 1.3 certification badge for the nRF Connect SDK earlier this year. Thread 1.3 is a prerequisite for Matter over Thread and the certification can easily be inherited by the company’s customers for their own products.

While nRF Connect SDK 2.1.0 is feature complete, it is marked as “experimental” because it had been released before Matter 1.0 was formally adopted. Nordic will soon release an nRF Connect SDK 2.1.X to provide needed bugfixes and small improvements in Matter over Thread and to remove the experimental status. Customers can continue using nRF Connect SDK 2.1.0 to conform to the Matter 1.0 specification following some minor manual updates. Matter over Wi-Fi will be raised from experimental to full support when the nRF7002 enters volume production.

Matter is a connectivity standard that forms a common language to bring together disparate ecosystems and enables smart devices from different makers to work in harmony. The standard uses a common application layer and data model that delivers interoperability between devices allowing them to communicate with each other – regardless of the underlying network protocol or ecosystem. It is built on market-proven technologies using Internet Protocol (IP). Matter runs on Wi-Fi®, Thread and Ethernet network layers and uses Bluetooth® LE for commissioning.

Nordic customers are actively developing Matter-compliant devices today using the company’s nRF52840 and nRF5340 Systems-on-Chip (SoCs), which support Thread and Bluetooth LE. The nRF7002 Wi-Fi 6 Companion IC also supports Matter. Recent examples, including Nordic customer products using nRF52840 and nRF5340 SoCs, and Nordic using its Thingy:53 prototyping platform to run the Matter Weather Station application, successfully completed the Alliance’s Matter Test Events and Matter Specification Validation Events (SVEs). This success proves the Nordic products’ maturity and full compliance with the Matter 1.0 specification.

Nordic has recently been elevated to the Alliance’s Board of Directors and added as a Promoter Member, the highest level of membership. These changes allow Nordic to further influence the development of the Alliance’s standards including Matter.