Life at Eclipse

Musings on the Eclipse Foundation, the community and the ecosystem

Posts Tagged ‘embedded’

Bringing Open Source Hardware and Software Together: The Eclipse Foundation’s Vision for Embedded and Safety-Critical Innovation

The Eclipse Foundation has long been a leader in driving open source innovation across IoT, edge computing, and embedded ecosystems. For over 20 years the Eclipse C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) platform has seen broad adoption in the embedded market. For over a decade the Eclipse IoT and Edge community has been delivering great technology components, runtimes, and platforms. And more recently, the Eclipse Software Defined Vehicle working group and community have started to extend our footprint into the security and safety-conscious automotive industry. Now, the recent additions of Eclipse ThreadX and the OpenHW Group are cementing our position as the go-to destination for developers building embedded systems, particularly in safety-critical domains. These milestones, combined with the Foundation’s robust ecosystem, highlight our role as a hub for collaborative innovation in embedded technologies, especially at the intersection of software and hardware.

Expanding the Ecosystem: ThreadX and the OpenHW Foundation

The ThreadX journey at the Eclipse Foundation began in November  2023 when Microsoft contributed this trusted Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) to the Eclipse community. Originally developed by Express Logic and later acquired by Microsoft, ThreadX has been a cornerstone of safety-critical applications across industries like home appliances, medical devices, automotive, aerospace, and industrial automation. Renowned for its reliability and adherence to stringent functional safety standards, ThreadX continues to empower developers worldwide. Earlier this year the Eclipse ThreadX project was re-certified under functional safety standards IEC 61508, IEC 62304, ISO 26262, and EN50128, making ThreadX the world’s first community-driven, open source RTOS with functional safety certifications. 

Building on this strong foundation, we recently launched the ThreadX Alliance. This initiative unites key industry stakeholders to maintain a healthy ecosystem and advance ThreadX development and adoption, particularly in safety-critical applications. 

Adding to this momentum, the OpenHW Group has now joined the Eclipse ecosystem as the OpenHW Foundation, bringing its expertise in implementing RISC-V architectures to complement our software initiatives. OpenHW provides developers with permissively licensed, high-quality hardware IP, enabling the creation of advanced embedded real-time systems. In short, OpenHW takes the RISC-V instruction set architecture and makes it real by delivering verified open source-licensed processor designs written in industry standard System Verilog. 

Together, ThreadX and OpenHW deliver a powerful combination of proven RTOS capabilities and cutting-edge hardware innovation, providing a solid foundation for embedded and IoT applications.

By combining the proven safety-critical and real-time capabilities of ThreadX, the cutting-edge processor core designs of  OpenHW and other Eclipse initiatives—such as Eclipse Zenoh, Sparkplug, and the Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Working Group —we are building an unmatched environment for embedded developers. These advancements position the Eclipse Foundation as the premier destination for open source innovation in safety-critical and high-performance embedded systems.

A Strategy Built on Collaboration

Our vision is to create a cohesive ecosystem where projects across software and hardware domains can collaborate to accelerate embedded systems innovation. The Eclipse Foundation’s collaborative infrastructure ensures that projects like ThreadX and OpenHW are not siloed but rather integrated into a broader strategy that benefits developers and organisations alike:

  • IoT and Connectivity: Fundamental protocols like MQTT, Sparkplug, Eclipse Zenoh and Eclipse uProtocol provide robust real-time data sharing and control for industrial IoT and automotive applications. Zenoh’s recent 1.0.0 release sets a new standard for connectivity, particularly in robotics and edge systems.
  • Developer Tools: In addition to the widely adopted Eclipse CDT, Eclipse Theia, our modern, extensible IDE, supports safety-critical workflows and can be easily integrated with ThreadX-based projects, simplifying the development of complex embedded solutions.
  • Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV): The SDV Working Group is shaping tomorrow’s automotive software landscape. Its intersection with ThreadX and Zenoh, as manifested in uProtocol, enables more robust functional safety and advanced vehicle connectivity, ensuring that developers can confidently build next-generation automotive and mobility systems.
  • Multiplatform Integration: The Oniro Working Group develops a distributed operating system for smart devices, collaborating with projects like Theia or Kanto. This cross-project integration fosters an environment where developers can easily combine diverse technologies into coherent, scalable solutions.
  • Eclipse Functional Safety Process: The emergence of ThreadX and Eclipse SDV as critical technologies for safety-critical applications will not be possible without a robust development process enabling requirements traceability and comprehensive testing. The evolving Eclipse Foundation functional safety process will guide project teams in the embedded realm and beyond towards code and product certifiability in a uniform, predictable way.

As the home for these initiatives and technologies, the Eclipse Foundation offers an unparalleled ecosystem for developing sophisticated, safety-critical, and connected embedded systems.

The Road Ahead

The additions of Eclipse ThreadX and the OpenHW Foundation mark the start of an exciting new chapter in embedded systems innovation. By uniting cutting-edge hardware, trusted RTOS software, and advanced connectivity solutions, the Eclipse Foundation is poised to become the leading destination for developers working on safety-critical and high performance embedded systems.

We invite developers, organizations, and contributors to join us in shaping the future of embedded technology. Whether you engage through the ThreadX Alliance, the OpenHW Foundation, Eclipse SDV, or other projects within our vibrant ecosystem, you’ll find endless opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

Together, let’s build the future of embedded systems.

Learn More About the Eclipse Foundation and our Projects

Written by Mike Milinkovich

December 16, 2024 at 8:00 am

Posted in Foundation, Open Source, Strategy

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Introducing Eclipse ThreadX

TL;DR – Get Engaged!

What We’re Announcing

Every once in a while, a new open source initiative comes along which is truly an industry changing event. Today, Microsoft announced that Azure RTOS, including all of its components, is going to be made available as the Eclipse ThreadX open source project. This new project is exactly what the highly fragmented embedded software market has needed for a very long time. ThreadX is going to be the world’s first open source real time operating system which is:

  1. Mature and scalable technology. ThreadX has been developed for over 20 years, is currently running on over 12 billion devices around the world, and is highly regarded as a high-performance, highly deterministic, real time operating system.
  2. Made available under a permissive open source license. ThreadX is going to be licensed under the MIT license, which provides highly permissive license terms for users and adopters.
  3. Governed under a vendor-neutral open source foundation. ThreadX is going to be governed by the Eclipse Foundation and its development process. This will guarantee a vendor-neutral governance model to manage the evolution and sustainability of ThreadX for the benefit of the entire industry.

    AND
  4. Certified for functional safety and security. ThreadX is IEC 61508, IEC 62304, ISO 26262, and EN 50128 conformance certified by SGS-TÜV Saar. ThreadX has also achieved EAL4+ Common Criteria security certification. These certifications are a big differentiator, and are unprecedented in the industry. They are a game changer, as there are currently no open source RTOS’s which have them. 

While there are other open source RTOS’s out there, none have all of the four attributes listed above. We are optimistic that, because of these attributes, ThreadX is going to rapidly expand its adoption in a wide range of use cases including aerospace, automotive, IoT, medical, transportation, automation, and consumer wearables. 

Next Steps

In addition to the project, we are also announcing the creation of an interest group focused on developing an industry-supported, sustainable funding model for ThreadX. We are excited that AMD, Cypherbridge, Microsoft, NXP, PX5, Renesas, ST Microelectronics, Silicon Labs, and Witekio (an Avnet company) have all committed to supporting this conversation. We highly encourage every company with an interest in embedded technology to join to help create the future. 

The ThreadX interest group’s sole focus will be on establishing a working group focused on the following:

  1. Consolidate the project: There is going to be a great deal of focus on getting ThreadX moved under Eclipse Foundation governance as quickly as possible. This will involve transferring and re-licensing the code and documentation, and assigning the trademarks over the next few weeks. In parallel, we are looking for developers who have experience with the ThreadX code base to get involved as key resources from Cypherbridge, PX5, and Witekio have already done. The intent is to have the first release of ThreadX under Eclipse Foundation governance completed by the end of January 2024.
  2. Preserve the certifications: As I mentioned above, the safety and security certifications are a key differentiator for ThreadX. Maintaining those certifications while under open source governance is going to be a key factor in the evolution of ThreadX as an open source project. Fortunately, the Eclipse Foundation has been thinking about and staffing for this capability for a long time as our IoT and Software Defined Vehicle communities have similar requirements. Our intent is to develop best practices for the ThreadX community and, if required, modify and enhance our Eclipse Foundation Development Process to support the additional process requirements necessary to support safety and security. The documentation which will enable downstream adopters of ThreadX to certify their products will be made available under open licenses. This will significantly shorten the lifecycle of safety-certified products based on Eclipse ThreadX.
  3. Build the community: ThreadX represents an amazing opportunity to build an open source embedded software developer community. There will be a great deal of focus on nurturing new contributions, driving adoption via developer advocacy, and creating cross-pollination with our other communities within the Eclipse Foundation such as IoT and SDV, all while preserving the processes required for the certifications which differentiate ThreadX.
  4. Promote the brand: Returning to the original ThreadX name is purposefully intended to assure the many current adopters of this technology that this is and will remain the RTOS that they trust for their products. The new mission will be to associate the ThreadX brand with vendor-neutral governance, communicate clear market positioning, and establish compatibility programs that will provide value to current and future adopters.
  5. Grow the ecosystem: With over 10 billion devices deployed using ThreadX, it is clear that this is an important and mature technology. To ensure a sustainable future for ThreadX we need to obtain the support, participation, and contributions of all ecosystem participants: silicon/SBC manufacturers, embedded system integrators, and tool vendors. We highly encourage every company with an interest in embedded technology to join the interest group to help define and secure the future of ThreadX.

Eclipse ThreadX presents the industry with a game-changing opportunity. Having a performant, mature, safety and security certified, permissively-licensed, open source RTOS under vendor-neutral governance will enable new business and product opportunities around the world. We are very excited to work with the community to make ThreadX a huge success.

Written by Mike Milinkovich

November 21, 2023 at 11:00 am

Posted in Foundation, Open Source

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