May 2026 monthly summary for Zephyr4Microchip/zephyr focused on delivering a performance-oriented feature for SPI data handling. Implemented default enablement of MSPI DMA for the nrf-mspi peripheral, leveraging hardware DMA to boost throughput and reduce CPU bottlenecks. This was implemented via a Nordic NRF71 SoC Kconfig change (commit 24fb8ce88b1b51ea198746e9552b56a16b0fcc1f), ensuring DMA is used for almost all MSPI use-cases by default. The work sets a solid foundation for broader DMA-based SPI workflows in Zephyr and aligns software capabilities with hardware capabilities to improve data handling efficiency.

April 2026 monthly summary focusing on MSPI stability, performance measurement tooling, and external flash support across Zephyr repos. Key features delivered include a new MSPI throughput benchmark sample and expanded MX25U25645G MSPI flash support for the nRF7120DK. Major bugs fixed include correctness improvements in SPI controller DMA length handling and a compile-time stability fix when DMA and system work queue are enabled. The work enhances reliability, performance visibility, and hardware coverage, enabling faster customer value realization and broader platform support.

March 2026: Key outcomes centered on aligning MSPI with the Nordic MDK and stabilizing RISC-V build/link behavior. Delivered MSPI naming and API alignment across device tree and driver, migrating from QSPI to MSPI terminology and semantics, including updates to tmod register definitions to MSPI constants. Optimized RISC-V IRQ usage to reduce memory footprint and improve linking reliability by restricting NUM_IRQS to actually used interrupts. These changes improve maintainability, reduce build risk, and align with MDK expectations for MSPI. No regressions observed within this period and groundwork laid for future MSPI-driven enhancements.

February 2026 monthly summary: Delivered hardware/driver improvements across Zephyr projects to boost startup performance, data handling, and I/O efficiency, while stabilizing Bluetooth integration. Key outcomes include Nordic HFXO binding with startup-time configuration for nRF71/nRF7120, format registers support for unaligned 4-byte data transfers in NRF QSPI v2, DMA-based MSPI NOR Flash transfer mode configuration with Kconfig controls, and a fix to the NRF54H20 device tree formatting that enables Bluetooth Controller integration and smoother PR flows. These work items collectively enhance device startup reliability, data throughput, and overall system performance, highlighting strengths in device-tree bindings, DMA/PIO tradeoffs, and cross-repo collaboration.

January 2026 — Delivered robust testing, hardware alignment, and critical driver/DT fixes across Zephyr and NRF platforms. This work improves data integrity, hardware interoperability, and maintainability, enabling faster onboarding of new hardware (QSPI00) and reducing risk from misconfigured clocks and IO mappings.

December 2025: Delivered device-binding improvements, clock/configuration enhancements, and NRFX compatibility updates across Zephyr and Nordic SDKs. Implemented robust devicetree validation, improved CAN clock handling, and enabled precise LFXO configuration for Nordic SoCs, while aligning drivers with nrfx 4.x to improve build reliability and maintainability.

November 2025 highlights: cross-repo DMA reliability enhancements, driver cleanups, and expanded validation for Nordic platforms. Delivered targeted DMA fixes for MSPI/NRF QSPI V2, refactored EVDMA definitions for clarity, and hardened AUXPLL configuration, with added PDM loopback test coverage for NRF7120. These changes improve data integrity, reduce configuration errors, and strengthen test coverage while enabling leaner builds when DMA is disabled.

October 2025 focused on reducing boot-time complexity, expanding peripheral capabilities, and strengthening driver robustness across NRF and Zephyr repositories. The work delivers clearer initialization flows, enhanced hardware support, and standardized configurations that improve reliability, performance, and future maintainability for embedded platforms.

September 2025 monthly summary focusing on key accomplishments, with emphasis on delivered features and stability improvements across Zephyr and Nordic SDKs. Implemented MSPI driver timeout callback API to improve error handling and resource cleanup, with accompanying documentation and header updates. For NRF 7120, introduced a new AUXPLL clock control validation test suite and corrected the default AUXPLL configuration to ensure accurate audio clock settings. These changes enhance driver robustness, test coverage, and hardware interoperability, delivering clear business value through reduced downtime and better resource management.

August 2025: Delivered MSPI support in the Nordic nRF pinctrl driver and aligned the MSPI device-tree binding with the mspi.h enum, resulting in cleaner driver implementation and more reliable MSPI configuration across platforms. This work lays the groundwork for broader MSPI adoption in Zephyr and reduces future maintenance risk.

July 2025 monthly summary: Delivered targeted features and build-system improvements across two repositories. In sdk-nrf, cleaned the build system by removing unused Kconfig references from CMakeLists.txt, eliminating dead code and reducing maintenance overhead. In sdk-zephyr, added audio_auxpll clock source support for the DMIC NRFX driver on nRF54HX and updated device tree bindings to reflect the new clock source, enabling flexible audio clocking. No explicit bug fixes were reported in this period; focus remained on reliability, maintainability, and extensibility. Overall impact: streamlined builds, extended hardware compatibility, and improved developer onboarding and productivity. Technologies demonstrated: build systems (Kconfig/CMake), device tree bindings, DMIC NRFX driver clocking, and Zephyr integration.

June 2025 monthly summary focusing on clock management improvements, expanded Nordic SPI support, and stabilizing device-tree driven configuration across two repositories. Key cross-repo initiatives delivered: NRF2 clock control API adoption across AUXPLL and CAN with additional tests and targeted optimizations; SPI driver extended to Nordic spim01/spis01; and a fix to derive SYS_CLOCK_HW_CYCLES_PER_SEC from proper devicetree entries for nrf7120.

May 2025 monthly summary: Focused on foundational hardware clocking and audio interface enablement across two repos, delivering DTS-based audio PLL integration and binding groundwork that unlocks PDM/TDM audio and canpll frequency configurations for current and upcoming Nordic and Ambiq hardware. These changes strengthen hardware abstractions, reduce integration risk for future boards, and enable higher-quality audio paths and clock domains in Zephyr-based products.

Delivered NRF7120 hardware platform support across the HAL Nordic module in nrfconnect/sdk-nrf, paired with a comprehensive test-suite integration. Implemented NRF7120 support across I2C, UART, SPI, GPIO, temperature sensor, and reset-cause tests, including configuration headers, overlays, and CODEOWNERS updates to enable end-to-end testing on NRF7120. Updated Zephyr-based test coverage for boards/nrf hwinfo reset_cause and extended tests for i2c_target_api, sensor temp_sensor, uart, spi, and gpio drivers to validate NRF7120 in real scenarios. The effort encompassed 10 commits across modules/hal_nordic, tests, and CODEOWNERS to enable robust hardware validation.

February 2025 performance summary for nrfconnect/sdk-nrf: Delivered security enablement on entropy-enabled nRF71X and broadened PDK testing coverage for nRF7120. Implemented conditional nRF Security enablement via Kconfig, conditioned on Zephyr PSA Crypto RNG and target nRF71X SoC, and expanded test overlays to exercise GPIO, UART baudrate, and PWM loopback drivers on the nRF7120 PDK. The work enhances security posture, increases validation coverage, and accelerates QA feedback for entropy-based features.

January 2025 monthly summary focusing on key accomplishments in repo nrfconnect/sdk-nrf. Delivered Nordic nRF7120 support in Nordic Connect SDK (NCS) by updating project structure recognition to detect the new 'soc' directory and by introducing Device Tree Source (DTS) files to enable hardware description for ARM and RISC-V cores. This work expands hardware compatibility and accelerates onboarding for customers evaluating the nRF7120 platform.

December 2024 monthly summary focusing on hardware enablement for Nordic MCU platform. Delivered nRF7120 PDK board support in NordicBuilder/sdk-nrf, with configuration files and device tree entries for both the application CPU and the fast lightweight peripheral processor. Enabled basic UART and GPIO functionality to validate onboarding and initial tests. No major bug fixes documented this month; efforts centered on hardware bring-up and setting up development/testing workflows. This work expands hardware support, accelerates path to testing, and demonstrates cross-functional collaboration between hardware and software teams.