Is Broadcom (Widcomm) Bluetooth SDK forward compatible?

Question

I've noticed that Widcomm/Broadcom BT SDK is a bit out-of-date. The last release (BTW 6.1.0.1504) was at January 10, 2009.

First question,
Can I use it for the future Broadcom Bluetooth chips (in other words: Is it forward compatible)?

Second question,
Is there an SDK (for Windows) for Broadcom BLE?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I tried to get the latest SDK for WIDCOMM as the publicly available one is from 2009 and doesn't support BLE. This is the non-helpful reply I received:

The latest versoin is what they put on the website for 6.1.0.1506 They don't have any further later version. And they will go with windows native SDK, Broadcom seems don't plan to provide further update.

So I'd say the WIDCOMM SDK is no longer publicly available.

Answer 2

I have been using the latest versions of the WICED Smart SDK : 2.1 and 2.2. So far it is doing the trick, and installing it includes all the example projects, of which there are many.

One issue though is that there is no true debugging. You can use the HCI UART for debug traces, which at times can be handy, but true step through debugging can only be accomplished using a third party SWD (Serial Wire Debug) tool:

http://community.broadcom.com/docs/DOC-1741

I have not yet tried it but I will probably soon.

Unfortunately, you will have to register on Broadcom's community to view that application note.

Answer 3

Broadcom has a "WICED Smart" SDK which is intended for firmware development on their BLE chips (e.g., BCM27036, BCM20737). The SDK uses Eclipse and GCC for building the firmware for the BLE device chips, but some of the demo projects also include Visual C++ source code for host-side programs to communicate with the device-side firmware. These host-side programs support BLE with the WIDCOMM drivers on Windows 7, or the native Microsoft BLE support on Windows 8.

In general, trying to support BLE on Windows 7 (or earlier) is an exercise in futility.