The Azure Sphere 23.05 feature release includes the following components:
- Updated Azure Sphere OS
- Updated Azure Sphere SDK for Windows and for Linux
- Updated Azure Sphere extensions for Visual Studio and for Visual Studio Code
If your devices are connected to the internet, they will receive the updated OS from the cloud. You'll be prompted to install the updated SDK on next use, or you can install it now. To install the latest SDK, see the installation Quickstart for Windows or Linux:
- Quickstart: Install the Azure Sphere SDK for Windows
- Quickstart: Install the Azure Sphere SDK for Linux
Highlights in this release include new cryptographic libraries, default NTP fallback, new beta APIs for Azure IoT connections using your own certificate, faster and enhanced factory testing, multidevice support for Linux, a new tools repository, and graduation of the Parse Device Logs self-help Gallery project to fully supported status.
New and changed features in the 23.05 OS
The 23.05 release of the Azure Sphere OS includes the following changes:
Microsoft-managed onboard cryptographic libraries
As part of the 23.05 release, Azure Sphere has cryptographic libraries built-in to the OS Through our partnership with wolfSSL, you can now call select wolfCrypt APIs in your application that allow you to perform ECC or xChaCha encryption and decryption, certificate generation and management, and more without incurring a RAM or flash impact for building these into your application. Instead, you will be serviced by the Azure Sphere OS's built-in libraries, which can be patched and kept up to date by Microsoft. This new functionality is part of our ABI compatibility promise for the life of the product, and you can view wolfSSL’s long term ABI promises on their website, where they also provide examples for how to use these wolfCrypt APIs, such as ECC.
Expanded NTP robustness
In the event that Microsoft NTP timeservers are experiencing an outage, Azure Sphere devices will now attempt to fallback to a NIST NTP server after trying multiple regional Microsoft endpoints, unless a custom NTP is being used with custom fallback configurations. This expands the connectivity robustness of Azure Sphere devices by giving them more options to synchronize for communication to the cloud and other servers. Administrators of Azure Sphere devices behind firewalls can refer to the updated endpoint details here.
3rd Party Certificate Support for Azure IoT (Beta)
Azure Sphere’s OS includes the Azure IoT C SDK. New for this OS, we are previewing APIs as part of our Beta program to utilize certificates provided by the application to connect to Azure IoT, these certificates do not need to be rooted in the Azure Sphere device. This allows easy connection to Azure IoT resources with certificates that root to existing systems. These Beta APIs are optimized for testing currently, but will be updated to support production operations at scale. If you have feedback on these APIs, including production environment requirements, please contact us at AZSPPGSUP@microsoft.com. The new APIs are:
- AzureIoT_OverrideAzureSphereAuthCert
- AzureIoT_OverrideAzureSphereAuthPrivateKey
Update RF Tools OS support and improve tools performance
RF Tools have been updated to include:
- Support for both Windows and Linux x86 platforms, including multi-device.
- Performance improvements for reading and writing bufferbin and eFuse data, through new batching OS calls.
- A Python library, assisting Python users with development of their own scripts and applications.
New and changed features in the 23.05 SDK
The 23.05 release of the Azure Sphere SDK includes the following changes:
Linux multi-device support
The 23.05 SDK adds support for multiple concurrently connected Azure Sphere devices in Linux, bringing this feature in line with existing support on Windows. This has particular relevance to Linux-based manufacturing scenarios.
Additionally, there is no longer a need call the azsphere_connect.sh script when connecting a new device - connection now takes place automatically in parity with existing Windows support.
See the updated documentation on Linux SDK installation.
Add SDK support for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
The 23.05 SDK adds support for Ubuntu 22.04, adding to the existing Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 support. The Linux SDK installer can determine the LTS version of Ubuntu you are running and download or install the appropriate SDK.
End-of-support notice for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04 is now outside Canonical's long-term standard support arrangement. As such the 23.05 SDK will be the last Azure Sphere SDK to support this OS version. Future SDKs will not support Ubuntu 18.04.
New and changed features in 23.05 for Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code extensions for Azure Sphere
The 23.05 release of the Azure Sphere Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code extensions includes the following changes:
- Improved debugging experience when debugging real-time capable applications and when debugging multiple applications
- Updated New Project templates
New Tools GitHub repository
A new GitHub repository, Azure Sphere Tools, has been introduced. This repository will contain additional supported tools relating to manufacturing, support, and diagnostics. The manufacturing folder has been relocated from the Samples repository, placing manufacturing tools in a single, easy-to-find location, while also reducing the footprint of the samples repository.
New and updated Gallery projects for 23.05
For the 23.05 release of the Azure Sphere samples, the Parse Device Logs project has graduated from the Gallery and is now an officially supported project located in the new Azure Sphere Tools repository.
