The Zephyr Project is an open-source real-time operating system project neutrally hosted by the Linux Foundation, targeting resource-constrained interconnected devices, emphasizing security, reliability, and scalability. It not only provides a lightweight kernel but also covers drivers, protocol stacks, middleware, build tools, and testing systems, allowing on-demand customization and supportingx86、mainstream architectures such as ARM, RISC-V, etc.

Compared to fragmented or vendor-locked RTOS solutions, Zephyr has six advantages: active community and rapid iteration; Apache 2.0 license for easy commercial integration; high modularity with a minimum kernel size as low as KB level; LTS long-term support; code quality assurance through Code Review and CI/CD; and continuous progress on functional safety certification paths such as IEC 61508. Its development process closely aligns with the Linux ecosystem, facilitating cross-platform porting and team collaboration.

After more than a decade of evolution, Zephyr has formed a development model of open governance, industry alliance, and ecological collaboration, helping enterprises reuse mature drivers, protocol stacks, and test results, reducing redundant development and long-term maintenance costs.

Aiming at real-time scenarios such as industrial control, embodied intelligence, and robotics, build a complete and sustainable Zephyr development ecosystem infrastructure, providing efficient, stable, and secure one-stop basic services for the community and domestic developers. The SIG advances around four tasks:Organization building, mirror maintenance, event communicationandDevelopment innovation, focusing on work in development toolchains, complex platform adaptation, hybrid deployment, middleware and debugging operations, security and trustworthiness, and deterministic networks, driving continuous evolution of Zephyr capabilities.

Focusing on the above goals, the ZephyrProject SIG will primarily undertake the following tasks and promote the phased implementation of the Zephyr ecosystem in the openKylin community.

Build infrastructure such as repositories, SDKs, build and test tools, and development documentation, creating a one-stop development environment to lower the barriers for domestic developers in code acquisition, environment setup, and project development.

Focus on domestic chips and boards, improve basic capabilities such as multi-core concurrency, memory management, and bootloading, and advance the implementation of high-speed buses and complex device drivers, enabling Zephyr to move from MCU scenarios to larger SoCs and complex industrial equipment.

Combine virtualization, AMP, and other solutions to study isolation and dynamic scheduling between real-time and non-real-time domains, supporting the integration of industrial intelligence, computing, display, and control, building an embedded software platform that synergizes Linux + RTOS + AI. Improve application development and operation tools, focusing on system middleware, visual construction, online and offline debugging, distributed communication, and OTA upgrades, to streamline the entire process from development, debugging, deployment, to maintenance. For long-term device operation and industrial communication needs, continuously improve high-reliability file systems, POSIX compatibility, and advance support for deterministic networks and industrial buses such as TSN and EtherCAT, providing a more complete foundation for application migration and cross-platform reuse.

On one hand, through Zephyr Meetup, Hackathon, and openKylin-related activities, provide domestic developers with technical exchange and practical entry points, gradually improving Chinese technical documentation and developer support; on the other hand, actively participate in international events such as Zephyr Developer Summit and Open Source Summit to strengthen communication and collaboration with the upstream Zephyr community. Focusing on software and hardware adaptation achievements like domestic chips and simulators, the SIG will promote relevant patches and solutions upstream after verification, while cultivating local Maintainers and Committers, enabling domestic developers to move from using open source to participating in maintenance and co-construction.

All upstream ZephyrProject repositories will be gradually implemented and maintained in openKylin through three phases. The first phase has been completed, with full-stack maintenance of 41 code repositories, covering the five-layer software architecture from hardware and platform, HAL abstraction, system services, API and framework to application layer, accompanied by a commercial delivery development toolchain and related infrastructure that runs through the entire lifecycle, supporting one-click initialization:

Compared to directly accessing GitHub, this link achieves approximately 20x speedup, significantly lowering the barrier for domestic developers in acquisition and setup. Based on the West workspace, developers can pull Zephyr and its dependency modules, use the supporting SDK for compilation, and perform board-level validation on multiple platforms, realizing the engineering path of "developable, debuggable, board-testable, and maintainable."

We sincerely invite developers, open-source enthusiasts, and partners from the industry chain to join the ZephyrProject SIG! Moving forward, the ZephyrProject SIG will collaborate with developers and industry partners to continue promoting domestic hardware adaptation, toolchain improvement, and scenario validation, gradually feeding mature results back to the upstream community. Whether you are a geek focused on the underlying kernel, an application-layer developer, or an enterprise seeking commercial RTOS deployment, join the ZephyrProject SIG to participate in building the ecosystem of the next-generation interconnected device RTOS platform, working together to create a more prosperous and open open-source world!

Mailing list:zephyrproject@lists.openkylin.top

SIG homepage:https://gitee.com/openkylin/community/tree/master/sig/ZephyrProject