Matter hardware and memory requirements

Hardware that runs Matter protocol applications must meet specification requirements, including providing the right amount of flash memory and being able to run Bluetooth® LE and Thread or Wi-Fi® concurrently.

Supported SoCs

Currently the following SoCs from Nordic Semiconductor are supported for use with the Matter protocol:

  • nRF5340 (Matter over Thread)

  • nRF52840 (Matter over Thread)

  • nRF54L15 (Matter over Thread)

  • nRF54L10 (Matter over Thread)

  • nRF54LM20 (Matter over Thread and Matter over Wi-Fi through the nrf7002eb2 shield)

Front-End Modules

SoCs from Nordic Semiconductor that can run the Matter protocol over Thread can also work with external Front-End Modules. For more information about the FEM support in the nRF Connect SDK, see Developing with Front-End Modules and nRF21540 DK.

External flash

For the currently supported SoCs, you must use an external memory with at least 1 MB of flash for nRF52840 and nRF54L10, and 1.5 MB for nRF5340 and nRF54L15. This is required to perform the DFU operation.

Note

The nRF54L15 supports DFU with image compression, which may eliminate the need for external flash. For more details, see MCUboot image compression.

The development kits for the supported SoCs from Nordic Semiconductor are supplied with the MX25R64 type of external flash that meets these memory requirements. However, it is possible to configure the SoCs with different QSPI or SPI memory if it is supported by Zephyr. For this purpose, check the reference design for Nordic DKs for information about how to connect the external memory with SoC, specifically whether the pins are designed for the QSPI or the high-speed SPIM operations.

RAM and flash memory requirements

RAM and flash memory requirement values differ depending on the DK and the programmed sample.

The following tables list memory requirement values for Matter samples.

Values are provided in kilobytes (KB).

The following table lists memory requirements for samples running on the nRF52840 DK.

Sample

MCUboot ROM

Application ROM

Factory data

Settings

Total ROM

Total RAM (incl. static HEAP)

Closure (Debug)

28

765

4

32

829

172

Closure (Release)

28

620

4

32

684

169

Contact Sensor (Debug)

28

726

4

32

790

160

Contact Sensor (Release)

28

580

4

32

644

158

Light Bulb (Debug)

28

777

4

32

841

172

Light Bulb (Release)

28

627

4

32

691

169

Light Switch (Debug)

28

743

4

32

807

160

Light Switch (Release)

28

591

4

32

655

156

Smoke CO Alarm (Debug)

28

733

4

32

797

160

Smoke CO Alarm (Release)

28

583

4

32

647

158

Temperature Sensor (Debug)

28

726

4

32

790

160

Temperature Sensor (Release)

28

580

4

32

644

158

Template (Debug)

28

693

4

32

757

157

Template (Release)

28

554

4

32

618

154

Thermostat (Debug)

28

752

4

32

816

158

Thermostat (Release)

28

589

4

32

653

155

Window Covering (Debug)

28

727

4

32

791

158

Window Covering (Release)

28

578

4

32

642

155

Manufacturer Specific (Debug)

28

699

4

32

763

159

Note

The release configurations are built with Link-Time Optimization (LTO).

Reference Matter memory layouts

The following tabs show how the Matter stack architecture in the nRF Connect SDK translates to actual memory maps for each of the available Matter platform designs (System-on-Chip, multiprotocol). The memory values match RAM and flash memory requirements listed above.

Each tab shows the memory maps for the development kits supported by the Matter protocol, including two memory maps for the Matter weather station, which uses Nordic Thingy:53.

For more information about configuration of memory layouts in Matter, see Partition layout.

The following memory map is valid for Matter applications running on the nRF52840 DK.

Internal flash (size: 0x100000 = 1024 kB)

Partition

Offset

Size

Partition elements

Element offset

Element size

Bootloader (boot_partition)

0 kB (0x0)

28 kB (0x7000)

Application (slot0_partition)

28 kB (0x7000)

960 kB (0xf0000)

28 kB (0x7000)

512 B (0x200)

28.5 kB (0x7200)

959.5 kB (0xefe00)

Factory data (factory_data_partition)

988 kB (0xf7000)

4 kB (0x1000)

Non-volatile storage (storage_partition)

992 kB (0xf8000)

32 kB (0x8000)
SRAM primary (size: 0x40000 = 256 kB)

SRAM is located at the address 0x20000000 in the memory address space of the application.

Partition

Offset

Size

Partition elements

Element offset

Element size

Static RAM (sram_primary)

0 kB (0x0)

256 kB (0x40000)
External flash (size: 0x800000 = 8192 kB)

Partition

Offset

Size

Partition elements

Element offset

Element size

Application DFU (slot1_partition)

0 kB (0x0)

960 kB (0xf0000)

Free space (remaining QSPI flash)

960 kB (0xf0000)

7232 kB (0x710000)

Diagnostic logs RAM memory requirements

Diagnostic logs support requires changing the RAM memory layout by adding three retained RAM partitions to keep the log data persistent across device reboots. The Matter diagnostic logs snippet (matter-diagnostic-logs) adds these RAM partitions and also reduces the amount of SRAM available for the application by the size of the retained partitions. You can adjust the retained partitions for your needs by editing the Matter diagnostic logs snippet (matter-diagnostic-logs) devicetree file for the relevant board.

The following tabs show the RAM memory layout defined for the default configuration of the Matter diagnostic logs snippet (matter-diagnostic-logs) for each development kit.

The following RAM memory layout is valid for Matter applications running on the nRF52840 DK.

Base Application core SRAM size (size: 0x40000 = 256 kB) SRAM is located at the address 0x20000000 in the memory address space of the application.

Partition

Offset

Size

Application core SRAM primary

0 (0x0)

247,8125 kB (0x3DF40)

Crash retention

247,8125 kB (0x3DF40)

192 B (0xC0)

Network logs retention

248 kB (0x3E000)

6 kB (0x1800)

User data logs retention

254 kB (0x3F800)

2 kB (0x800)