Why Zephyr RTOS with IAR is a smart choice for embedded teams

Embedded software is at the core of innovation in automotive, medical, and industrial systems. From connected devices to complex edge platforms, companies rely on embedded development to differentiate their products and meet the growing demands of the market.

But while the ambition to build smarter and safer systems is rising, engineering teams often face mounting constraints. Product leaders are expected to reduce time to market, meet stricter compliance regulations, and support more platforms with limited resources and fewer engineers.

This new reality calls for development ecosystems that are both flexible and dependable, balancing open innovation with production quality and regulatory readiness. That’s why the combination of Zephyr RTOS and IAR is drawing attention from engineering and product leaders alike.

In January 2025, IAR officially joined the Zephyr Project, marking a deeper commitment to open-source RTOS innovation. And starting with version 9.70, Zephyr support is now available in the latest IAR toolchains for Arm, bridging the gap between experimentation and production deployment.

Why Zephyr RTOS matters

The growing complexity of embedded systems necessitates software platforms that are scalable, modular, and capable of supporting a range of architectures. Many teams are also seeking alternatives to proprietary RTOSs that limit portability or lock them into narrow ecosystems.

Zephyr RTOS has emerged as one of the strongest answers to these needs. Maintained by the Linux Foundation and supported by over 45 contributing organizations, Zephyr offers a robust foundation for embedded development. It has rapidly evolved from an experimental RTOS into a stable platform for real-world deployments.

Zephyr is already in use across industries, including IoT, consumer electronics, medical devices, and industrial automation. It supports over 750 boards and works across major architectures, such as:

• Arm
• RISC-V
• and more

Beyond board and architecture support, Zephyr offers a development model optimized for modularity and maintainability. Its build and configuration system, including Device Tree, Kconfig, west, and CMake, helps developers manage hardware abstraction, feature selection, and project scaling in a structured way.

This translates into practical advantages for engineering teams:

• No vendor lock-in, which supports long-term portability and sourcing flexibility
• Faster onboarding, especially for developers familiar with Linux concepts
• Tooling that simplifies scaling across devices and configurations
• A stable and growing community that encourages reuse and collaboration

However, building production systems on an open-source RTOS introduces new requirements, and that’s where IAR plays a critical role.

Moving from prototype to production with IAR

While Zephyr provides flexibility, teams often face challenges when scaling beyond initial prototypes. Moving to production introduces stricter quality requirements, complex debugging, the need for traceability, and in many cases, regulatory certification.

This is where IAR’s embedded platform complements Zephyr by providing a complete, production-grade toolchain that supports CI/CD integration, safety analysis, and advanced debugging. With IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm v9.70 and IAR Build Tools part of the IAR platform, teams can integrate Zephyr into their workflows with consistency and control.

Key capabilities include:

• Native support for Zephyr builds using IAR’s highly optimized compilers
• Seamless compatibility with CMake and west, enabling automation and CI integration
• RTOS-aware debugging through IAR’s C-SPY Debugger, with insight into Zephyr’s kernel objects
• Support for Visual Studio Code and the IAR IDE, depending on team preference

Together, these features provide teams with a reliable way to adopt Zephyr while maintaining existing processes intact. Engineers can focus on building secure, functional software instead of struggling with low-level integration.

Addressing safety and compliance from the start

For development in regulated domains like automotive, industrial automation, or medical devices, functional safety is not optional, it’s foundational.

IAR's toolchains include TÜV-certified compilers and runtime analysis tools that help teams align with key safety standards:

• ISO 26262 for automotive
• IEC 61508 for industrial
• IEC 62304 for medical

Additionally, tools such as C-STAT (static code analysis) and C-RUN (runtime checking) are fully integrated into IAR’s platform. These allow teams to:

• Enforce coding standards like MISRA C/C++
• Detect memory issues, logic traps, or overflow risks early in development
• Automate code quality checks inside their CI/CD pipelines

This reduces reliance on manual reviews and makes safety validation faster and more repeatable, especially important for small teams with limited certification experience.

Supporting modern embedded workflows

Adopting modern workflows is crucial for scaling embedded software across product lines and distributed teams. But many legacy tools struggle to support CI/CD, containerization, and automated testing.

IAR and Zephyr together support a complete embedded DevOps cycle. The toolchain integrates into CI runners,  cloud-based or on-premises, and supports both graphical and headless workflows.

Teams can structure their lifecycle around five key stages:

1. Code: Work in familiar environments like Visual Studio Code or IAR Embedded Workbench
2. Build: Use west + CMake + IAR Build Tools for consistent outputs
3. Analyze: Run C-STAT and C-RUN as part of automated testing
4. Test: Perform unit and on-target tests in your existing pipeline
5. Deploy: Release binaries or flash firmware with audit-ready artifacts

The result is a flexible but traceable pipeline that supports innovation without sacrificing control.

Why this matters for product leaders

The technical decisions made by engineering teams directly affect business outcomes, whether it’s certification costs, time-to-market, or platform scalability.

Zephyr RTOS offers agility and architectural reach. IAR brings in production readiness, certified tooling, and the depth needed to scale confidently.

By enabling your team to use these tools together, you can:

• Increase consistency across distributed teams and architectures
• Detect and fix issues earlier in the lifecycle
• Prepare for certification during development, not after
• Avoid toolchain fragmentation that slows down integration and testing

Get started

Zephyr support is now built into the latest IAR toolchains for Arm, giving teams the foundation they need to move from lab to launch faster, with fewer obstacles.

To learn more, visit https://www.iar.com/partners/zephyr  or contact fae@iar.com  to schedule a practical demo of the IAR platform with Zephyr RTOS.