Open Source Real-Time Operating Systems

ChibiOS is a modular, high-performance development environment for embedded systems, featuring a dual-kernel architecture with the full-featured RT kernel and the ultra-compact NIL kernel. It provides a comprehensive Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), a Virtual File System (VFS), and advanced sandboxing capabilities, making it highly suitable for functional safety and multicore ARM Cortex-M applications.

Embox is a highly modular and configurable real-time operating system designed to execute Linux-compatible software on resource-constrained embedded systems and microcontrollers. It provides a POSIX-compliant environment, allowing developers to port complex desktop-grade libraries and applications like Qt, OpenCV, and PJSIP to platforms with limited RAM and ROM.

QP/C is a lightweight, event-driven real-time event framework (RTEF) based on the Active Object (Actor) model of computation and Hierarchical State Machines. It serves as a modern alternative to traditional RTOSs by providing a non-blocking, asynchronous architecture designed for deterministic execution in safety-critical embedded systems.

FreeRTOS is a market-leading real-time operating system kernel designed for microcontrollers and small microprocessors, featuring a small memory footprint and fast execution times. It provides a comprehensive ecosystem of libraries for IoT connectivity, security, and over-the-air updates, supporting over 40 processor architectures including ARM and RISC-V.

RIOT is a modular, open-source real-time operating system specifically engineered for the Internet of Things (IoT), supporting a wide range of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers. It features a micro-kernel architecture with a preemptive, tickless scheduler and provides a uniform API with partial POSIX compliance to simplify cross-platform development and code reuse.

TizenRT is a lightweight, RTOS-based platform designed for low-end IoT devices with limited resources, typically equipped with ARM Cortex-M/R processors and less than 2MB of RAM. It extends the NuttX kernel with a comprehensive ecosystem including Linux-style development environments, advanced networking stacks, and support for high-level languages like JavaScript to bridge the gap between RTOS efficiency and Linux-like developer experience.

Tock is a secure, concurrent embedded operating system designed for ARM Cortex-M and RISC-V microcontrollers, prioritizing isolation between the kernel, device drivers, and applications. It leverages Rust's memory safety for its kernel and hardware Memory Protection Units (MPUs) to run multiple mutually distrustful applications on resource-constrained hardware with as little as 64kB of RAM.

Hubris is a memory-isolated, task-based RTOS written in Rust, specifically designed for deeply-embedded microcontrollers with high reliability requirements. It eliminates dynamic resource allocation and runtime task creation to minimize attack surfaces and ensure deterministic behavior in critical systems.