Zephyr (operating system)


Zephyr is a small real-time operating system for connected, resource-constrained and embedded devices supporting multiple architectures and released under the Apache License 2.0. Beyond its kernel, Zephyr includes all the components and libraries needed to develop a full application such as device drivers, protocol stacks, file systems, and firmware updates.

History

In November 2015, it was originally developed as Rocket kernel by Wind River Systems for Internet of things devices.
In February 2016, Zephyr became a project of the Linux Foundation.
Since then, early members and supporters of Zephyr include Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Synopsys, Linaro, Texas Instruments, DeviceTone, Nordic Semiconductor, Oticon, and Bose.

Features

Zephyr intends to provide all components needed to develop resource-constrained and embedded or microcontroller-based applications. This includes, but is not limited to:
Zephyr uses Kconfig and device tree as its configuration systems, inherited from the Linux kernel but implemented in Python for portability to non-Unix operating systems. The RTOS build system is based on CMake, which allows Zephyr applications to be built on Linux, macOS and Microsoft Windows.

Kernel

The kernel offers several features that distinguish it from other small OSes:
A group is dedicated to maintaining and improving the security. Also, being owned and supported by a community means the world's open source developers are vetting the code, which significantly increases security.