Does Bluetooth on Colibri iMX6ULL support Coded PHY?

Technical Support
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1

As I can read from the datasheet the Wireless module on the Colibri iMX6ULL 512MB Wi-Fi / Bluetooth IT board is a AW-CM276NF, does anybody know if the chip and thereby the SoM support BLE long range / Coded PHY?

2

Hi @HARU , welcome to the Toradex Community.

While BLE 5.0 is supported, unfortunately BLE long range/Coded PHY is not currently supported. More info here:

Kind regards,
Alvaro.

3

Hi @alvaro.tx

Thank you for your reply.

Do you have any plans to support it in the future?

4

No plans at the moment, unfortunately.

If the AW-CM276NF’s chipset (88W8997) supports BLE 5.1 / BLE long range/Coded PHY with an updated firmware, our products might support it as well.

Another option is to update the Wireless module but we don’t expect to change this any time soon.

Kind regards,
Alvaro.

6

Thank you for your reply.
I have another question

What is the difference from other companies’ products that support BLE 5.1 ​​/ BLE long range / Coded PHY?

Is it just the difference whether the firmware that supports BLE 5.1 ​​/ BLE long range / Coded PHY is adopted?

7

Hi @HARU , I’ve double checked and my answer was not entirely correct: it is a matter of the current Linux driver support from NXP for 88W8997 in Colibri iMX6ULL and other modules. Right now, there are some changes on the WiFi / Bluetooth support on NXP modules regarding the drivers used.

It seems that 88W8997 supports BLE 5.1 / BLE long range / Coded PHY with the newer drivers but the current driver used in Colibri iMX6ULL does not support it.

There are no plans for now to change this as it would require some changes on the HW as well: New driver only supports UART while Colibri iMX6ULL BT connection is done through SDIO. The best chance that Coded PHY is supported would be in the Verdin iMX8M Plus that already implemented this change, but the Coded PHY is not tested /planned at the moment.

8

Thank you for your reply.

In other words, does it depend on the firmware whether or not it supports BLE 5.1 ​​/ BLE long range / Coded PHY even when compared with other companies’ BT modules?

9

That and the Linux driver support of the MPU (if you are using Linux)

10

I will reconsider.

Thank you for your reply.