Zephyr RTOS
Build secure, connected, future-proof devices with Zephyr®
A scalable, secure real-time operating system for embedded devices across many hardware architectures and supported boards.
About the Project
Why use this?
Zephyr RTOS is a Linux Foundation-hosted real-time operating system designed for secure, connected, resource-constrained devices. It provides a unified kernel, hardware abstraction through devicetree, device drivers, networking and wireless stacks, security features, and a consistent build system across ARM, RISC-V, x86, ARC, and other architectures.
Electronics engineers choose Zephyr when they need a production-grade RTOS that can scale from small sensor nodes to connected edge devices without changing ecosystems. Its broad board support, long-term support releases, vendor participation, and security-oriented design make it especially suitable for products that require maintainability, compliance, and long service life. [94][95][99]
Key Features
- Scalable RTOS kernel for small Cortex-M devices through multi-core 64-bit CPUs
- Support for ARM, RISC-V, x86, ARC, and other hardware architectures
- Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Thread, Zigbee, CAN, USB, and networking stacks
- Devicetree-based hardware configuration and portable driver model
- Security features, LTS releases, and production-oriented tooling
- Reference / Repo
- https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr
- Tool / Hosted
- https://www.zephyrproject.org/
- Replaces / Alternative to
- FreeRTOS, ThreadX, Keil RTX, proprietary RTOS ecosystems
- Free layer
- open-source