Zephyr RTOS sits between bare-metal firmware and full Linux, giving developers a compact real-time operating system for connected microcontrollers when Linux would be too big. Kate Stewart describes how the Linux Foundation project has grown since 2016 into millions of deployed devices, from Chromebook embedded controllers and Intel platform firmware to deeply embedded IoT nodes, under an Apache 2.0, “for developers, by developers” model. https://zephyrproject.org/
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She explains how the Zephyr kernel and its ecosystem—drivers, sensor and networking stacks, board support and test infrastructure—are increasingly reused beyond the core RTOS. The West meta-tool manages multi-repository projects, builds, flashing and debugging, while also generating software bills of materials (SBOMs) to help manufacturers align with requirements such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act and long-term maintenance expectations.
Recorded at Embedded World North America 2025 in Anaheim, the discussion then turns to edge AI on highly resource-constrained devices. Frameworks such as Edge Impulse and TensorFlow Lite Micro run on Zephyr to power gesture-recognition “magic wands”, satellite telemetry filters that only wake high-power FPGAs when needed, and simple on-device classifiers that pre-process sensor data before heavier cloud or gateway models.
Kate argues that observability for AI systems at the edge will require an “AI BOM” alongside the SBOM, capturing models and training data so failures can be debugged as rigorously as code. She also outlines Zephyr’s neutral governance and membership model, where project members fund shared CI, hardware farms and show presence, while any company or individual can still upstream code under the same technical steering processes.
The roadmap she sketches includes functional safety certification (IEC 61508 for industrial applications, ISO 26262 for automotive and interest in avionics-style DO-178 use), longer five-year LTS branches and tighter security workflows around coordinated disclosure, Bluetooth hardening and CVE-tracked fixes. The conversation closes with global community growth, from Zephyr tracks at Open Source Summit events to real products in agriculture, wind energy and even Antarctic wildlife tags, showing how a tiny RTOS can quietly span industries, regions and use cases.
Zephyr at Embedded World North America 2025: Tiny RTOS for Millions of MCUs, CRA and AI BOMs
Zephyr at Embedded World North America 2025: Neutral RTOS Governance, Edge AI at the Edge
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