Discover FreeRTOS, a real-time operating system for microcontrollers with built-in libraries for communication, analysis and debugging, distributed under the MIT license.
FreeRTOS is an open-source real-time operating system (RTOS) primarily used on microcontrollers and embedded systems. Lightweight and efficient, it effectively manages hardware resource sharing while integrating libraries for networking (TCP/IP), file systems, and debugging. Distributed under the MIT license since 2017, it is now widely adopted in IoT and industrial projects.
A lightweight and powerful real-time operating system
The core of this RTOS is monolithic, meaning that the main operating system functions are grouped into a single software block. This architecture allows for very good performance with a small memory footprint.
It is particularly suited to embedded systems requiring deterministic execution, such as connected objects or industrial applications.
Compatible with many microcontrollers and integrated circuits, it works in particular on STM32, MSP430, AVR or even ARM Cortex-M and Cortex-A architectures.
Smile & FreeRTOS
Smile's expertise in real-time embedded systems
Smile supports companies in the development of embedded systems based on RTOS. Our teams work on microcontrollers, SoCs and SoMs to design complete solutions.
Our expertise covers, in particular:
- the development of BSP (Board Support Package),
- the creation and adaptation of drivers,
- the integration of an embedded operating system into connected objects.
We design IoT architectures integrating Edge computing and the Cloud, notably via the AWS ecosystem, in which FreeRTOS is natively integrated.
If you would like to learn more, our FreeRTOS & AMAZON WEB SERVICES white paper is available for free download !
Licensing model and project evolution
Initially distributed under a dual license (GPL and commercial), the project evolved in 2017 when it was integrated into the AWS (Amazon Web Services) ecosystem.
Since then, it has been published under the MIT license , a permissive open source license that allows the code to be modified and integrated into specific applications without strong constraints.
There are also commercial versions:
- OpenRTOS : includes professional support and warranties
- SafeRTOS : designed for critical environments with certifications (IEC 61508, ISO 26262, IEC 62304)