FreeRTOS FAQs

FreeRTOS is an open source, real time operating system for microcontrollers that makes small, low-power edge devices easy to program, deploy, secure, connect, and manage. Distributed freely under the MIT open source license, FreeRTOS includes a kernel and a growing set of software libraries suitable for use across industry sectors and applications. To support a growing number of use cases, AWS provides software libraries that offer enhanced functionality including connectivity, security, and over-the-air updates. For example, you can use FreeRTOS to securely connect your small, low-powered devices to AWS cloud services like AWS IoT Core or to more powerful edge devices running AWS IoT Greengrass.

Since 2017, Amazon FreeRTOS has been an extension of the FreeRTOS project, so we have unified the two names to reduce customer confusion. The FreeRTOS project now includes the additional connectivity libraries, security libraries, and IoT reference integrations.

You can download FreeRTOS code from GitHub irrespective of your geographic location and AWS region availability. For the availability of FreeRTOS over-the-air (OTA) update cloud services, see the AWS Region Table.

FreeRTOS can be used in embedded systems spanning industrial, commercial, and consumer applications. For example, smart meters, oil pump sensors, appliances, commercial security systems, fitness trackers, and sensor networks can all benefit from FreeRTOS. Smart meters are used in homes to monitor electricity usage in real time. Fitness trackers send health data via the user’s mobile device to the cloud for real time monitoring or analytics. Utilities benefit from this data by enabling more efficient load balancing and power output from their generating stations. Oil pump sensors are used on oil rigs to monitor the output on wells that might be buried deep underwater. An oil rig might deploy FreeRTOS on those sensors and use an AWS IoT Greengrass Core to locally process data from pumps and valves in real time. The AWS IoT Greengrass Core could then send batches of preprocessed pump sensor data to the cloud for analytics and data warehousing. To learn more about AWS IoT Greengrass, click here.

Semiconductor vendors manufacture microcontrollers and modules like connectivity sensors, security peripherals, and Ethernet controllers. These microcontrollers and modules are used by OEMs to build IoT devices.

OEMs include industrial companies, commercial enterprises, and consumer brands. Microcontroller developers can use FreeRTOS to easily design and develop a connected device and IoT applications.

Enterprises can use IoT connected devices that are powered by FreeRTOS to gain business and operational efficiency.

FreeRTOS includes the FreeRTOS kernel, a real time operating system kernel for microcontrollers, and libraries that support connectivity, security, and over-the-air updates. See the list of FreeRTOS libraries at freertos.org.

If you run all FreeRTOS libraries, including TLS, on the application microcontroller, you may need a microcontroller with >25 MHz processing speed and >64 KB RAM. If the communication and crypto stack (except for MQTT) is offloaded onto the networking processor, your microcontroller will only need 10 MHz processing speed and 16 KB RAM. However, these values are just approximations, as factors such as MCU architecture, compiler, and compiler optimization level may impact processing speed and RAM requirements. FreeRTOS needs 128 KB of program memory per executable image stored on the microcontroller. For over-the-air (OTA) update functionality, two executable images must be stored in program memory at the same time.

FreeRTOS provides IoT Reference Integrations for a wide range of microcontrollers from our partners in the AWS Partner Device Catalog. FreeRTOS includes the FreeRTOS kernel, which supports 40+ architectures, including the latest from RISC-V and ARMv8-M.

You can use the getting started guide for systematic instructions on how to run FreeRTOS on a qualified board.

Use any of the following channels to get support:

• FreeRTOS Community Forums
• Premium Support
• AWS Support
• GitHub Issues

To create a better forums experience for our customers, we have migrated all content and users from the AWS Forums Amazon FreeRTOS group to the Amazon Web Services category on the FreeRTOS Community Forums. Learn more here.

Yes. You can use the FreeRTOS user guide to get started with connecting FreeRTOS devices to AWS.

Yes. FreeRTOS is an open-source software, so it can be modified to fit any specific needs of your application.

Yes. FreeRTOS is an open-source software distributed under the MIT license, so it can be modified to fit any specific needs of your application or project without the permission of AWS.

FreeRTOS is free to download and use under an open source MIT license.

You can explore FreeRTOS code and functionality on a Windows machine by downloading the libraries and samples ported to run on Windows. This is a set of files referred to as the FreeRTOS simulator for Windows (Windows Simulator). Get started here.

No. FreeRTOS is an open source, real time operating system for microcontrollers. You can run FreeRTOS on your chosen microcontroller by porting FreeRTOS code and validating the ported code with AWS IoT Device Tester. To make it easier for you, we have provided IoT reference integrations and qualified ports for common microcontrollers in the AWS Partner Device Catalog.

See GitHub repository architecture and versioning on freertos.org.