Zephyr for Embedded Products

Before diving into installation and setup, it’s worth understanding why Zephyr is an excellent choice for embedded products and what the ecosystem looks like.

Why Use Zephyr?

Zephyr has rapidly become one of the most popular choices for embedded product development. Here’s why:

Open Source with Permissive Licensing

Zephyr is released under the Apache 2.0 license, which means:

No royalties — no per-device fees
Commercial-friendly — use in proprietary products without releasing your source code
Patent grant — contributors grant patent rights
No copyleft obligations — unlike GPL-based RTOSes

Some third-party components bundled with Zephyr (e.g., certain drivers or libraries) may have different licenses. Always check the LICENSE file in each module.

Vendor-Neutral Governance

Zephyr is a Linux Foundation project, not owned by any single chip vendor. This means:

No vendor lock-in
Multiple silicon vendors contribute and maintain support
Roadmap driven by community needs, not a single company’s priorities

Modern Architecture

Unlike legacy RTOSes that evolved from simpler kernels, Zephyr was designed from the ground up for modern connected devices:

Configurable kernel — enable only what you need
Native networking — TCP/IP, Bluetooth, 802.15.4, LoRa, and more
Security-first — memory protection, secure boot support, crypto APIs
Multi-architecture — ARM, RISC-V, x86, ARC, Xtensa, and more

Hardware Support

Zephyr supports 600+ boards across multiple architectures:

Architecture	Example SoCs	Typical Use Cases
ARM Cortex-M	STM32, nRF52/53, NXP i.MX RT	IoT sensors, wearables, motor control
ARM Cortex-A	i.MX 8M	Gateway devices, multimedia
RISC-V	ESP32-C3, GD32VF103, SiFive	Low-cost IoT, education
x86	Intel Quark, Elkhart Lake	Industrial, edge computing
Xtensa	ESP32, Intel ADSP	Audio, Wi-Fi devices
ARC	Synopsys ARC EM/HS	Specialized embedded

Vendor Ecosystem

Major silicon vendors actively contribute to Zephyr:

Nordic Semiconductor — nRF Connect SDK built on Zephyr
NXP — MCUXpresso SDK with Zephyr support
STMicroelectronics — STM32 full family support
Intel — x86 and RISC-V platforms
Espressif — ESP32 series support
Microchip — SAM family support
Texas Instruments — CC13xx/CC26xx support

Ecosystem Overview

Zephyr provides a complete platform, not just a kernel:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Application Layer              │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Networking  │  Bluetooth  │  USB  │ Storage│
│  (TCP/IP,    │  (BLE, Mesh,│       │ (FS,   │
│   MQTT,CoAP) │   Audio)    │       │  NVS)  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Logging  │  Shell  │  Settings  │  DFU     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│         Device Driver Framework             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              Kernel (Scheduler,             │
│         Threads, Sync, Memory Mgmt)         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│     Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│              Hardware (SoC / Board)         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key Subsystems

Kernel — threads, scheduling, synchronization, timers
Networking — full TCP/IP stack, MQTT, CoAP, HTTP, WebSocket, LwM2M
Bluetooth — BLE, Bluetooth Mesh, Bluetooth Audio (LE Audio)
USB — device and host support
File Systems — FAT, LittleFS
Non-Volatile Storage — settings subsystem, NVS
Device Firmware Update — MCUboot integration
Security — Mbed TLS, PSA Crypto, Trusted Firmware-M

Product Considerations

When using Zephyr for a commercial product, consider:

Release Lifecycle

Zephyr follows a time-based release cycle:

Major releases — every ~4 months (e.g., 3.6, 3.7, 4.0)
LTS (Long-Term Support) — designated releases with 2+ years of security patches
Security advisories — published for critical vulnerabilities

For production products, prefer LTS releases and subscribe to the Zephyr security mailing list for advisories.

Certification

Zephyr can be used in certified products:

Bluetooth SIG — Zephyr’s BLE stack is qualified
Thread Group — OpenThread integration is certified
IEC 62443 — security certification paths available
Safety — functional safety working group active (IEC 61508)

Security

Zephyr provides multiple security mechanisms:

Memory Protection Unit (MPU) — hardware isolation between threads
User/Supervisor mode — privilege separation
Stack canaries — stack overflow detection
Secure boot — MCUboot integration
Crypto — hardware-accelerated cryptography where available
PSA Certified — Platform Security Architecture compliance

Software Updates

Over-the-air (OTA) and field updates are supported through:

MCUboot — secure bootloader with rollback support
SMP (Simple Management Protocol) — device management over BLE, UART, or UDP
LwM2M — standardized IoT device management
hawkBit — Eclipse IoT update server integration

Product Examples

Zephyr is used in production by companies large and small:

Product/Project	Company	Use Case
nRF Connect SDK	Nordic Semiconductor	Complete BLE/Thread/Matter SDK
OpenBIC	Meta (Facebook)	BMC firmware for data centers
ChromeOS EC	Google	Embedded controller firmware
Golioth	Golioth	IoT cloud platform SDK
Pinnacle 100	Laird Connectivity	Industrial IoT gateway
Air Quality Monitor	Various	Environmental sensing

Part 7 of this guide provides in-depth case studies of OpenBIC and ASPEED Root of Trust — two real-world production uses of Zephyr.

Zephyr vs. Other RTOSes

Feature	Zephyr	FreeRTOS	Mbed OS	RIOT
License	Apache 2.0	MIT	Apache 2.0	LGPL
Governance	Linux Foundation	AWS	ARM (archived)	Community
Networking	Native full stack	Add-on (FreeRTOS+TCP)	Native	Native
Bluetooth	Full stack	No	BLE only	Partial
Board support	600+	Vendor-specific	Limited	200+
Build system	CMake/west	Vendor IDE	Mbed CLI	Make
Device tree	Yes	No	No	No

Getting Started

Now that you understand why Zephyr is a great choice for embedded products, let’s set up your development environment.

Continue to Installation to install the Zephyr SDK.