Advanced software and development tools
Nordic Semiconductor provides software for all parts of your system development, from communication stacks and application layer software to development tools for desktop, mobile and cloud. Whether you need a build environment, debugging tool or full development kit, we have a solution that will work for you. For more information about our software offerings, see this page.
We develop in-house solutions, as well as recommend other software and tools from our network of trusted third-parties.
Develop and evaluate. Monitor and test
nRF Connect is a suite of development tools and software that encompasses all your development requirements with Nordic products. This suite of tools and software supports everything from toolchain set up, software development and loading through to mobile apps and a cloud service for evaluation, monitor and test. nRF Connect comprises of four elements:
For cellular IoT and short-range
From evaluation to initial prototyping and beyond, our popular development kits are a low cost way to get going with wireless development. But low cost doesn’t mean we skimp on features.
We offer a diverse and comprehensive suite of versatile development kits including single board DKs, a Power Profiler Kit, USB dongles, and our sensor-packed Nordic Thingy:52 prototyping platform.
Development kit
The nRF9160 DK is an LTE-M, NB-IoT, GPS and Bluetooth LE development kit for the nRF9160 SiP.
Development kit
The nRF5340 PDK is the preview development kit for the nRF5340 SoC.
Development kits
We offer complete software solutions for short-range and cellular IoT.
Which protocols do you need?
LTE-M and NB-IoT software development kit
nRF Connect SDK is a common software development kit for cellular IoT and short-range wireless, on the nRF9160 SiP, the nRF5340 SoC and all nRF52 Series SoCs.
SoftDevices are high-performance protocol stacks
Nordic SoftDevices are Bluetooth protocol stacks that are pre-compiled binaries without runtime dependencies. This allows developers to design their applications interaction with the SoftDevice such that they experience predictable and reliable operation.
A stable hardware helper
In essence, a SoftDevice can be viewed similar to a hardware peripheral from a developer's point of view with clear interfaces and predictable behaviour. Because SoftDevices are complete and qualified when we deliver them, they are unaffected by the ‘develop and
compile’ cycle of application development and always remain stable.
The nRF5 SDK for nRF52 and nRF51 Series and the range of SoftDevices are designed to work together seamlessly, offering you as a developer an easy-to-use solution for building wireless applications.
Tested and proven in countless applications, Nordic SoftDevices come as part of the nRF5 Software Development Kit (nRF5 SDK) or can also be downloaded separately.
Trusted partners of software and modules
We constantly review and evaluate third-party tools to see if existing tools meet the needs of our internal teams and our customers. Those that do we adopt and recommend. This includes a range of approved third-party modules based on Nordic technology.
Developed in-house and fully maintained
nRF Connect is a cross-platform tool that enables testing and development with Bluetooth Low Energy, while for IDEs and compilers, Nordic supports the tools you prefer to use. We also offer a range of desktop software, mobile apps, and cloud connectivity options to help your development project.
A free development environment for Nordic customers
The SEGGER Embedded Studio IDE is now available for free to all Nordic Semiconductor customers. Support for Segger Embedded Studio has been added to the latest release of the nRF5 SDK, enabling developers to get going with code examples out of the box.
