Upcoming Azure Sphere 18.11 release
Published date: November 05, 2018
Azure Sphere has been in public preview. We plan to publish the 18.11 release during the week of November 12.
Updating the OS to the 18.11 release will involve connecting the device to a PC and manually installing the OS instead of receiving the software over the air (OTA). To manually update your device to 18.11 and reconnect to Wi-Fi, you'll need to download and install the new SDK and follow the instructions in the release notes. If you previously configured OTA application deployment, you'll need to create new feeds.
After the release of 18.11, we encourage you to upgrade your device OS and SDK as soon as possible. After the release, devices that run the TP 4.2.1 release won't receive any OTA updates for either device or application software. However, device authentication and attestation will continue to work to authenticate to Azure IoT Hub. TP 4.2.1 will continue to be supported until January 15, 2019. Thereafter, devices that are running the TP 4.2.1 OS won't be able to authenticate to Azure IoT Hub.
The 18.11 release will add support for several new features:
- Real-time clock (RTC). A new API enables applications to set and use the internal clock. Support for using a coin-cell battery ensures that the RTC continues to keep time when power is lost.
- Mutable storage. A beta API provides access to a maximum of 64k for storage of persistent read/write data.
- Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) Wi-Fi setup. A reference solution shows how to add a BLE module and use it to configure the Wi-Fi connection on the Azure Sphere device.
- External MCU update. A reference solution shows how your application can update the firmware of additional connected MCUs.
- Software update improvements. The Azure Sphere security service now seamlessly handles expired root certificates. Devices that are intermittently connected or are disconnected for long periods of time can always connect to Azure Sphere and securely update.
- Beta API targeting. You can target applications for either the production APIs or the production and beta APIs.