John Round, Software R&D Fellow, NXP Semiconductors, and Zephyr Project Governing Board Member
At the end of April, the Zephyr Project passed a huge and significant milestone, hitting 40K commits to the project since its inception. There can be no greater sign of support for a community driven project than to have global developers invest their time and effort to both collaborate and contribute to the mission of delivering a truly open source and open governance RTOS. We’re on to something big here!
In just a few short years, the Zephyr Project has grown to leverage the collective expertise of several hundred developers intent on delivering an SoC-neutral, class-leading, commercially deployable RTOS platform. The Zephyr RTOS is designed for use in any embedded application where configurability, modularity, and high functionality ‘out of the box’ are required. For example, current Zephyr RTOS capabilities include an LTS release along with support for Bluetooth (4.2 and 5.0) and USB, further demonstrating that Zephyr is not ‘just another’ RTOS kernel.
As we look to the future of the Zephyr Project, we see literally endless potential. Active project committees are researching, planning and driving developments in areas such as security and functional safety, and ultimately expanding its reach to an ever wider range of end markets.
I have been on the Zephyr Project Board for a few years now and can attest that the sustained commitment and energy from the member companies is quite incredible. We are fortunate to have the guidance and assistance of the Linux Foundation who ensure both open governance and high integrity within the management of the project, holding all members accountable to a high standard. Many software projects and their providers claim to be open source, but as we all know that can be a claim of convenience. Without a commitment to a strict open governance structure that drives a fundamental difference in the quality, longevity and inclusion of the project, it falls well short of being truly open source.
Participating in the creation and development of the Zephyr Project will be a legacy that all involved should be rightly proud of. For years to come, we will point to next generation products enabled with the Zephyr RTOS, the truly open source, openly auditable, high functionality RTOS platform that supports all major SoC architectures and delivers security and high functionality for customers.
Congratulations to the teams and community involved in the delivery of such a significant milestone, and I look forward to seeing the expansion of our thriving developer community in the future. Let’s keep the momentum going.
If you are interested in contributing to the Zephyr Project please see our Contributor Guide or our Getting started Guide here. Join the conversation or ask questions on our Slack channel or Mailing List.