Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the most common questions about EmbeddedOS, its products, licensing, and community.
About EmbeddedOS
What is EmbeddedOS?
EmbeddedOS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research foundation building the world's most complete open-source embedded AI systems stack. We develop EoS (the RTOS kernel), EAI (AI inference runtime), ENI (neural interface), EIPC (secure IPC), eBootloader (secure boot), eBuild (build system), EoSim (simulator), EoStudio (IDE), and eDB (embedded database) — all under the MIT license.
Is EmbeddedOS free to use commercially?
Yes. All EmbeddedOS products are released under the MIT license, which permits unrestricted commercial use, modification, and redistribution without royalty payments. You only need to include the MIT license notice in your product documentation or about screen.
How does EmbeddedOS compare to FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or RTEMS?
EmbeddedOS is not just an RTOS — it is a full embedded AI platform. EoS (the kernel) is comparable to FreeRTOS or Zephyr in scope, but the broader EmbeddedOS stack adds AI inference (EAI), neural interfaces (ENI), secure boot (eBootloader), and an integrated IDE (EoStudio) that no other open-source embedded platform provides. EoS is also designed from the ground up with capability-based security, which is more robust than the permission models in FreeRTOS or Zephyr.
What hardware does EmbeddedOS support?
EoS supports ARM Cortex-M/A/R, RISC-V RV32/RV64, x86, MIPS, ARC, and Xtensa architectures. eBuild includes 41 pre-configured product profiles covering sensor nodes, gateways, infotainment, robotics, and edge servers. New BSP profiles can be added by the community.
Is EmbeddedOS production-ready?
EmbeddedOS is currently in active development (v0.1.x). The core components (EoS kernel, eBootloader, eBuild) are approaching production readiness for non-safety-critical applications. Safety-critical certification (DO-178C, IEC 61508) artifacts are on the v1.0 roadmap. We recommend evaluating EmbeddedOS for new designs and providing feedback through GitHub.
Technical Questions
What is the minimum hardware requirement for EoS?
EoS requires a minimum of 4 KB flash and 2 KB RAM for the bare scheduler and HAL. A typical sensor node application with UART, SPI, and GPIO uses approximately 16 KB flash and 4 KB RAM. The full EoS stack with networking and file system requires approximately 64 KB flash and 16 KB RAM.
Can I run EAI on a Cortex-M4?
Yes, but with limitations. Cortex-M4 does not have Helium MVE acceleration, so EAI uses the generic C backend. You can run INT8 quantized models like keyword spotters and small CNNs. For LLM inference (INT4), we recommend Cortex-M55 or M85 with Helium MVE, which achieves 11 tok/s on TinyLlama-1.1B.
How does eBootloader handle OTA updates?
eBootloader implements a dual-bank A/B update scheme. The new firmware image is downloaded to the inactive bank, its ECDSA-256 signature is verified, and the anti-rollback version counter is checked. If all checks pass, the bootloader atomically swaps the active bank pointer and reboots. If the new firmware fails to boot (watchdog timeout), eBootloader automatically reverts to the previous bank.
Does EoSim require physical hardware?
No. EoSim runs entirely in software using QEMU as the simulation backend. You can develop, debug, and test EoS firmware on any Linux, macOS, or Windows machine without a physical development board. The optional HIL bridge mode connects the simulator to real hardware peripherals for mixed virtual/physical testing.
What SQL features does eDB support?
eDB supports a practical subset of SQL: SELECT (with WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT, JOIN), INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE TABLE, CREATE INDEX, DROP TABLE, and transactions (BEGIN, COMMIT, ROLLBACK). It also supports JSON Path queries for semi-structured data. Full SQL-92 compliance is not a goal — the focus is on the operations most useful in embedded applications.
Community & Contribution
How do I get started contributing?
Start by reading the Code of Conduct and the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the repository you want to contribute to. Then browse issues labelled good first issue on GitHub. Join the community forum to introduce yourself and ask questions.
Can my company become a member of the foundation?
Yes. Organizational membership is available at several tiers. Members gain voting rights on governance decisions, early access to roadmap previews, logo placement on the website, and recognition in our annual report. See the membership page for details.
How are decisions made about the roadmap?
The Technical Steering Committee (TSC) makes final decisions on the roadmap, but all proposals are discussed publicly in GitHub Discussions. Foundation members have voting rights on major roadmap decisions. We aim for consensus-driven governance with transparent decision records.