Guest: Michael Gielda (LinkedIn)
Company/Project: Antmicro (Twitter) | Zephyr Project (Twitter)
Show: Let’s Talk
Keyword: Zephyr

Antmicro, the software-driven tech company, develops open source technologies to create products, platforms and tools for customers in a variety of industries. The company specializes in building edge AI solutions on top of Linux and Zephyr operating systems including robots, drones, agricultural devices, space satellites and cars. One of the key technologies the company utilizes is Zephyr, because it fits anywhere that Linux does not. It is also utilized if there is a need for a real-time operating system.

In this episode of TFiR Let’s Talk, Swapnil Bhartiya sat down with Michael Gielda, VP of Business Development at Antmicro and Chair of the Zephyr Project Marketing Committee, to discuss how Antmicro is using Zephyr and Renode to help the ecosystem. Gielda says, “Zephyr markets itself as an operating system of an ecosystem and with all the tools, modules and applications that you’re required to build real products and not just prototypes.”

One of the reasons Antmicro’s go-to operating system is Zephyr is due to its vendor neutrality. It also lends itself to the ecosystem as it is portable, reusable, and modular. Zephyr supports predominantly ARM, with Cortex-M devices being one of the primary focuses.

Renode, the open source simulator for developing complex software for embedded and IoT systems, similarly covers a broad range of architectures but focuses mainly on ARM for small IoT devices. The simulator also supports many architectures including RISC-V and Xtensa architecture. The tool aims to enable fast, more effective development particularly for testing systems as it allows developers to cover lots of different scenarios, build reusable systems and debug not just the architectures but also the boards of peripherals, enabling end-to-end applications to be tested.

The Zephyr dashboard showcases hundreds of boards that Zephyr supports and how well they are covered by Renode. The dashboard helps developers see the breadth of Zephyr’s support and all the different options for simulating hundreds of different boards and running software on them. It also aims to help users see patterns and trends in the electronics industry, making it easier and more efficient to develop products.

About Michael Gielda: Michael Gielda is VP of Business Development and Co-Founder of Antmicro, the authors and maintainers of Renode. Antmicro provides custom device and software development services predominantly based on open source, as well participating in efforts such as the RISC-V Foundation, Linux Foundation and Zephyr Project, and developing tools like Renode to improve the quality and interoperability of IoT technologies.

About Zephyr Project: The Zephyr Project is an open source project that builds a safe, secure and flexible RTOS for resource-constrained devices.

The summary of the show is written by Emily Nicholls.