Zephyr RTOS Programming Guide
Welcome to the comprehensive Zephyr RTOS programming guide. This tutorial takes you from complete beginner to professional-level embedded systems development, covering everything from basic setup to real-world case studies like OpenBIC and ASPEED Root of Trust.
What You’ll Learn
- Getting Started: Set up your development environment with Docker, west, and IDE integration
- Build System: Master west, CMake, Kconfig, and device tree fundamentals
- Kernel Essentials: Threads, scheduling, interrupts, timing, and kernel objects
- Synchronization & IPC: Mutexes, semaphores, message queues, and inter-thread communication
- Device Drivers: GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, and writing custom drivers
- Advanced Topics: Logging, debugging, testing, quality assurance, networking, Bluetooth LE, and power management
- Professional Case Studies: OpenBIC BMC firmware and ASPEED RoT security architecture
Quick Start
How This Guide is Organized
| Section | Description | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1: Getting Started | Environment setup, tooling, first program | Beginner |
| Part 2: Build System | West, CMake, Kconfig, device tree | Beginner |
| Part 3: Kernel Essentials | Threads, scheduling, timing, workqueues | Intermediate |
| Part 4: Synchronization & IPC | Mutexes, semaphores, queues, events | Intermediate |
| Part 5: Device Drivers | Driver model, GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART | Intermediate |
| Part 6: Advanced Topics | Logging, debugging, testing, QA, networking, Bluetooth, power | Advanced |
| Part 7: Case Studies | OpenBIC, ASPEED RoT analysis | Professional |
| Appendices | Glossary, references, troubleshooting | Reference |
Prerequisites
- Basic C programming knowledge
- Command line familiarity
- Understanding of embedded systems concepts (helpful but not required)
Sample Code
All examples in this guide are tested and available in the examples/ directory. Each example includes:
- Complete, buildable Zephyr application
- Detailed comments explaining the code
- README with build and run instructions
Docker Quick Start
Don’t want to install Zephyr locally? Use our Docker environment:
docker-compose up -d
docker-compose exec zephyr west build -b qemu_cortex_m3 samples/hello_world
docker-compose exec zephyr west build -t run
See Docker Setup for details.
Contributing
Found an error? Want to add content? Open an issue on GitHub.
This guide is community-maintained and not officially affiliated with the Zephyr Project or Linux Foundation. For official documentation, visit docs.zephyrproject.org.