Zephyr (operating system)

Zephyr (/ˈzɛf ər/) is a small real-time operating system (RTOS)[7] for

Zephyr
connected, resource-constrained and embedded devices (with an emphasis
on microcontrollers) supporting multiple architectures and released under
the Apache License 2.0. Zephyr includes a kernel, and all components and
libraries, device drivers, protocol stacks, file systems, and firmware updates,
needed to develop full application software.[8]

It is named after Zephyrus, the ancient Greek god of the west wind.[9]
Zephyr Project logo
History Developer Linux Foundation,
Wind River Systems
Zephyr originated from Virtuoso RTOS for digital signal processors
Written in C
(DSPs).[10][11] In 2001, Wind River Systems acquired Belgian software
company Eonic Systems, the developer of Virtuoso. In November 2015, OS family Real-time operating
Wind River Systems renamed the operating system to Rocket, made it open- systems
source and royalty-free.[11] Compared to Wind River's other RTOS, Working state Current
VxWorks, Rocket had a much smaller memory needs, especially suitable for Source model Open source
sensors and single-function embedded devices. Rocket could fit into as little
Initial release 17 February 2016[1]
as 4 KB of memory, while VxWorks needed 200 KB or more.[11]
Latest release 3.6.0 / 23 February
In February 2016, Rocket became a hosted collaborative project of the Linux 2024[2][3]
Foundation under the name Zephyr.[10][12][1] Wind River Systems Repository github.com
contributed the Rocket kernel to Zephyr, but still provided Rocket to its /zephyrproject-rtos
clients, charging them for the cloud services.[13][11] As a result, Rocket /zephyr (https://githu
became "essentially the commercial version of Zephyr".[13] b.com/zephyrproject
-rtos/zephyr)
Since then, early members and supporters of Zephyr include Intel, NXP
Semiconductors, Synopsys, Linaro,[14] Texas Instruments, DeviceTone, Marketing target Internet of things,
Nordic Semiconductor, Oticon, and Bose.[15] Embedded Systems
Available in English
As of January 2022, Zephyr had the largest number of contributors and
Platforms ARM (Cortex-M,
commits compared to other RTOSes (including Mbed, RT-Thread, NuttX, Cortex-R, Cortex-A),
and RIOT).[16] ARC, MIPS, Nios II,
RISC-V, Xtensa,
Features SPARC, x86, x86-64

Zephyr intends to provide all components needed to develop resource- Kernel type Microkernel (pre-
constrained and embedded or microcontroller-based applications. This v1.6)[4][5][6]
includes, but is not limited to:[8] Monolithic
(v1.6+)[5][6]
A small kernel License Apache 2.0
A flexible configuration and build system for compile-time Preceded by Wind River Rocket
definition of required resources and modules
A set of protocol stacks (IPv4 and IPv6, Constrained Application Official website www.zephyrproject
Protocol (CoAP), LwM2M, MQTT, 802.15.4, Thread, Bluetooth .org (https://www.ze
Low Energy, CAN) phyrproject.org)
A virtual file system interface with several flash file systems for
non-volatile storage (FatFs, LittleFS, NVS)
 Management and device firmware update mechanisms

Configuration and build system

Zephyr uses Kconfig and devicetree as its configuration systems, inherited from the Linux kernel but implemented in
the programming language Python for portability to non-Unix operating systems.[17] The RTOS build system is based
on CMake, which allows Zephyr applications to be built on Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows.[18]

Utility Tool "West"

Zephyr has a general-purpose tool called "west" for managing repositories, downloading programs to hardware, etc.

Kernel
Early Zephyr kernels used a dual nanokernel plus microkernel design.[4][5][6] In December 2016, with Zephyr 1.6, this
changed to a monolithic kernel.[5][6]

The kernel offers several features that distinguish it from other small OSes:[8]

Single address space

Multiple scheduling algorithms
Highly configurable and modular for flexibility, with resources defined at compile-time
Memory protection unit (MPU) based protection
Asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP, based on OpenAMP) and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support

Security
A group is dedicated to maintaining and improving the security.[19] Also, being owned and supported by a community
means the world's open source developers are vetting the code, which significantly increases security.[12]

See also
Embedded operating system

References
1. "The Linux Foundation Announces Project to Build Real-Time Operating System for Internet of Things
Devices" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160310073146/https://www.zephyrproject.org/news/linux-founda
tion-announces-project-build-real-time-operating-system-internet-things-devices). Zephyr Project. Linux
Foundation. 17 February 2016. Archived from the original (https://www.zephyrproject.org/news/linux-foun
dation-announces-project-build-real-time-operating-system-internet-things-devices) on 2016-03-10.
2. "Zephyr v3.6.0" (https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/releases/tag/zephyr-v3.6.0). GitHub.
3. "Welcome, Zephyr 3.6!" (https://www.zephyrproject.org/welcome-zephyr-3-6/). Zephyr blog.
4. Wasserman, Shawn (February 22, 2016). "How Linux's IoT Zephyr Operating System Works" (https://mo
bile.engineering.com/amp/11530.html). Engineering.com.
5. Helm, Maureen (December 15, 2016). "Announcing Zephyr OS v1.6.0" (https://www.zephyrproject.org/an
nouncing-zephyr-os-v1-6-0/). Zephyr Project.
6. Wong, William G. (July 6, 2017). "Zephyr: A Wearable Operating System" (https://www.electronicdesign.c
om/technologies/embedded-revolution/article/21805266/zephyr-a-wearable-operating-system). Electronic
Design.
7. "Meet Linux's little brother: Zephyr, a tiny open-source IoT RTOS" (http://linuxgizmos.com/zephyr-a-tiny-o
pen-source-iot-rtos/). LinuxGizmos.com. 2016-02-17. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
8. "Zephyr Project documentation: Introduction" (https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/introduction/).
9. https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/develop/west/index.html#west-name
10. Clarysse, Ivo (November 22, 2019). "Zephyr – An Operating System for IoT" (https://www.zephyrproject.o
rg/zephyr-an-operating-system-for-iot/). Zephyr Project.
11. Turley, Jim (25 November 2015). "Wind River Sets Rocket RTOS on Free Trajectory" (http://www.eejourn
al.com/archives/articles/20151125-windriver/). Electronic Engineering Journal. Techfocus Media.
Retrieved 2018-02-23.
12. Guerrini, Federico (2016-02-19). "The Internet of Things Goes Open Source with Linux Foundation's
Zephyr Project" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/federicoguerrini/2016/02/19/the-internet-of-things-goes-op
en-source-with-linux-foundations-zephyr-project/). Forbes. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
13. Patel, Niheer (17 February 2016). "Wind River Welcomes Linux Foundation's Zephyr Project" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20160221003830/http://blogs.windriver.com/wind_river_blog/2016/02/wind-river-welco
mes-linux-foundations-zephyr-project.html). Wind River Systems. Archived from the original (http://blogs.
windriver.com/wind_river_blog/2016/02/wind-river-welcomes-linux-foundations-zephyr-project.html) on 21
February 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
14. Osborne, Charlie (2016-02-19). "The Linux Foundation's Zephyr Project: A custom operating system for
IoT devices" (https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-linux-foundations-zephyr-project-building-an-operating-sy
stem-for-iot-devices/). ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
15. "Zephyr Project Members" (https://www.zephyrproject.org/#members).
16. "Zephyr GitHub page" (https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr). GitHub. January 26, 2022.
17. "scripts/ folder" (https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/tree/master/scripts). GitHub. 12 May 2020.
18. "Application Development: Zephyr Project Documentation" (https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/applicati
on/). Zephyr Project.
19. Wallen, Jack (2016-02-18). "Linux Foundation announces Zephyr Project, an open source IoT operating
system" (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/linux-foundation-announces-zephyr-project-an-open-sourc
e-iot-operating-system/). TechRepublic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2017-01-12.

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