The Zephyr Project Leverages New Member Tools to Improve Automation on the Road to Safety Certification

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Zephyr™ Project, an open source project at the Linux Foundation that builds a safe, secure and flexible real-time operating system (RTOS) for the Internet of Things (IoT) in resource-constrained devices, announces new members and the incorporation of advanced automation tools that improve the Zephyr build infrastructure. These tools are a precursor to the project's first safety certification later this year. Additionally, the Zephyr Project welcomes BayLibre, Memfault and Parasoft to its global ecosystem.

"For software to be considered dependable and trusted in safety critical applications, rigorous testing and analysis is essential," said Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at the Linux Foundation. "Zephyr is being used today in wearables and other products with constrained environments and is under consideration for applications that require safety certification. By taking Zephyr through the IEC 61508 certification process, the project will improve its infrastructure, testing and traceability, so that other developers easily replicate the certification process."

This year, the Zephyr Project Safety Working Group created a set of rules for the code release that aims to increase reliability, readability, and maintainability. The group based the project guidelines on existing coding standards MISRA C:2012, which have a history of minimizing systematic fault in safety-critical systems. The guidelines were published as part of the project recommendations for collaboration.

As the project continues to progress towards safety certification, it will begin to use new member Parasoft's automated software testing tools to ensure high-quality. Parasoft's C/C++test utility that helps eliminate manual time-consuming tasks such as required testing during the development process and replaces it with a more interactive and robust analytics platform. The inclusion will enhance the Zephyr development process by improving capabilities and features as well as enabling each member company to focus more on differentiated solutions.

"It's amazing to see how the use of smart connected devices is rapidly changing our world," said Mark Lambert, VP of Strategic Initiatives at Parasoft. "As these devices expand their reach, it's critical that they're safe and secure. We're excited to be contributing to this amazing change as a new member of the Zephyr Project, provisioning our automated software testing solutions and assisting with safety certification."

With stricter coding guidelines and the automation tool, Zephyr will be on track to launch a certified code base for the next Long Term Support (LTS) release in Spring 2021. To learn more about the coding guidelines, check out this blog.

Zephyr's Growing Ecosystem
Launched in 2016 with only 80 contributors, the Zephyr community has grown more than 900 percent. Currently, the Zephyr Project has more than 800 talented and passionate contributors from around the globe. These developers have helped Zephyr meet several milestones, including surpassing more than 45,000 commits this year and supporting multiple architectures such as ARC, Arm, Intel, Nios, RISC-V, SPARC and Tensilica. There is now support for more than 250 boards by the project.

Hosted by the Linux Foundation, the Zephyr Project is one of the fastest growing adopted RTOS in the landscape. Developers choose Zephyr because of its small footprint, integrated stacks and its dependability to speed time to market. In addition to BayLibre, Memfault, Parasoft, other project members include Adafruit, Antmicro, Bose, Facebook, Foundries.io, Google, Intel, Laird Connectivity, Linaro, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Oticon, Synopsys and teenage engineering among others.

"As an embedded software and system integration consultancy, BayLibre chooses to design-in Zephyr on a multitude of projects," said Michael Turquette, CEO of BayLibre.  "The versatility of the operating system is complemented by the healthy and growing open source software community that the Zephyr Project has built. BayLibre engineers are core contributors to the ARM64 and RISC-V RV64 architectures in Zephyr and we only see our investment in Zephyr increasing. The continuing focus on safety complements the various mission critical deployments that BayLibre has led, including a variety of projects putting Zephyr in the data center to power the next generation of cloud hardware." BayLibre shares insight into porting Zephyr to RISC-V RV64 here. 

Memfault joins the Zephyr Project to help expand the growth of open source firmware in embedded development. Instrumenting the Zephyr RTOS with Memfault's cloud-connected debugging tools improves visibility and quality of product, both pre- and post-deployment. Zephyr RTOS users can get up and running in minutes with Memfault enabling real-time diagnostics and monitoring for fleets of IoT devices.

"Memfault joins the Zephyr Project with great enthusiasm and shared values," states Memfault CEO François Baldassari. "We are finally witnessing the emergence of quality, reusable open source operating systems as the predominant choice for developers of connected products: this trend will only accelerate. This is true for both common consumer IoT devices and, increasingly, industrial IoT use cases which mandate safety and security certifications. Memfault is proud to contribute."

Where to see Zephyr RTOS next
For the first time ever, the Zephyr Project will showcase products and solutions at CES, which takes place virtually on January 11-14, 2021. Several project and community members will be available to share their solutions including those directly related to COVID-19 monitoring. Stop by the booth to watch videos, ask questions or set an appointment to chat with a Zephyr ambassador. Learn more about Zephyr's activities at CES here.

To learn more about Zephyr RTOS, visit the Zephyr website and blog.

About the Zephyr™ Project
The Zephyr Project is a small, scalable real-time operating system for use on resource-constrained systems supporting multiple architectures. To learn more, please visit www.zephyrproject.org.

About the Linux Foundation
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more.  The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

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Maemalynn Meanor
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SOURCE The Zephyr Project