Zephyr RTOS Marks 10 Years, Adds Industry Giants to Fortify Secure IoT

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – February 05, 2026 – The Zephyr Project, an open-source real-time operating system (RTOS) hosted by the Linux Foundation, today announced a significant expansion of its ecosystem, welcoming seven new members including industrial heavyweight Schneider Electric. The announcement, which comes as the project enters its tenth year, underscores a strategic push towards standardization and enhanced security in the rapidly growing world of connected devices.

Chengdu Jingrong Lianchuang Technology, Embedd, Savoir-faire Linux, SevenLab, and Schneider Electric have joined as Silver members. Concurrently, open-hardware advocate BeagleBoard.org and the openEuler project have become Associate members, deepening their collaboration with the community. This influx of new partners from across the embedded landscape highlights Zephyr's increasing role as a foundational technology for everything from industrial IoT to consumer wearables.

A Decade of Building a Standard for Embedded Systems

Launched in 2016, Zephyr was conceived to address the fragmentation in the RTOS market. A decade later, it has evolved from a compact kernel into a comprehensive, scalable platform. The project now boasts support for over 900 boards across a diverse range of architectures including Arm, RISC-V, x86, and Renesas RX, a testament to thousands of hours of collaborative engineering.

This growth is driven by a need for stability and interoperability in a market projected to exceed $17 billion by 2035. Unlike more minimalist kernels such as FreeRTOS, which focus on core scheduling, Zephyr provides a full-featured framework with extensive drivers, communication stacks, and a powerful hardware abstraction layer. This integrated approach is a key draw for companies like Embedd, a new Silver member specializing in firmware solutions.

"Embedded development is in desperate need of standardization and stabilization of hardware abstraction, and Zephyr is at the forefront of solving this in an open, practical way," said Michael Lazarenko, Co-Founder at Embedd. The company plans to contribute directly to this goal, leveraging tools like its MCU/MPU DeviceTree configurator to streamline hardware integration and improve code portability across the ecosystem.

This focus on a unified development experience is a core tenet of the project. By using compile-time configurations and a robust Devicetree system for describing hardware, Zephyr enables developers to build applications that can be ported to different microcontrollers with minimal code changes, accelerating the path from prototype to production.

The Regulatory Imperative: Securing the Embedded World

The expansion of the Zephyr ecosystem arrives at a critical juncture for the technology industry. Governments are enacting stricter cybersecurity regulations, most notably the European Union's upcoming Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). The CRA mandates that manufacturers ensure products are secure by design and throughout their entire lifecycle, placing new responsibilities on developers of everything from smart home gadgets to industrial control systems.

This regulatory pressure is transforming the RTOS from a simple scheduler into a critical component of a product's security and compliance strategy. Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at the Linux Foundation, noted the project's alignment with these new demands. "As initiatives like the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) reshape expectations around security and resilience, Zephyr RTOS enters its 10th year focused on enabling manufacturers a way to deliver safer, more innovative embedded solutions," Stewart stated.

Zephyr's architecture is built with security as a priority. Features like memory protection, which allows for the isolation of individual tasks, and a commitment to long-term support (LTS) releases provide manufacturers with the tools and stability needed to meet stringent security requirements and provide ongoing vulnerability patches. This proactive stance on security and dependability is a significant factor driving adoption among companies building mission-critical and commercial products.

An Ecosystem of Active Contributors

The strength of an open-source project lies in its community, and Zephyr's is both large and active. The project saw nearly 800 developers contribute to its latest major release and boasts over 1,100 unique contributors in the last year alone. The new members have signaled a clear intention to be active participants.

"For SevenLab, becoming a Zephyr Project member signals our commitment to being active contributors, not passive consumers," explained Dr. Sven Hädrich, Co-Founder of the Germany-based engineering firm SevenLab. He emphasized a commitment of engineering resources to review code, contribute pull requests, and help guide the project's trajectory.

This sentiment is echoed by others. Savoir-faire Linux joined to formalize its contributions, citing growing market demand and opportunities in smart energy. "Actively participating in the open source projects we work with is part of our DNA," said Christophe Villemer, Executive Vice President at Savoir-faire Linux.

The addition of BeagleBoard.org as an Associate member further extends Zephyr's reach into education and hands-on learning. "Zephyr aligns perfectly with BeagleBoard.org's mission to enable deep, hands-on embedded systems learning," said founder Jason Kridner. Pairing the open-source RTOS with open hardware platforms helps create a clear learning path for the next generation of embedded engineers.

These new partners join an already formidable roster of Platinum members that includes Google, Intel, Meta, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, and Qualcomm, solidifying Zephyr's position as a vendor-neutral hub for collaborative innovation. The project will celebrate its 10-year anniversary at the upcoming embedded world Exhibition in Germany, where it will showcase live demos and host community events, offering a glimpse into the next decade of connected technology powered by its growing ecosystem.