Siemens among industry leaders in commercial grade Linux support for RISC-V 

Siemens’ Linux-based Sokol^TMFlex OS software now supports RISC-V embedded development. Based on the popular, open-source Yocto Project industry standard, Sokol^TMFlex OS provides one of the industry’s first commercially supported, extensible, and customizable Linux® platforms for the RISC-V architecture.

The RISC-V processor architecture has been revolutionizing the business model for deployment of architectures in the embedded systems marketplace. Being an open-source ISA (instruction set architecture), RISC-V has essentially de-centralized and democratized innovation and created room for open architecture. The RISC-V architecture is ideally suited for industrial, medical, military-aerospace, and consumer applications.

The Siemens Sokol^TMFlex OS for the RISC-V architecture streamlines application development, allowing customers to focus on value-add differentiation. Security and cloud enabled, Siemens’ Sokol^TMFlex OS features built-in security to monitor and detect common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs). It is commercially supported to help embedded developers create reliable, customized, Linux-based systems with ease, security and confidence. Additionally, Sokol^TMFlex OS customers receive quarterly updates and security patches, including a robust toolchain for software performance analysis.

“Siemens continues to show leadership within the RISC-V ecosystem with the launch of Sokol^TMFlex OS for RISC-V,” said Krishnakumar Ramamoorthi, senior product marketing manager of Microchip Technology’s FPGA business unit. “Now PolarFire® SoC FPGA users can leverage a commercially supported Linux distribution backed by the power of Siemens.“

Siemens is a strategic member of RISC-V International since 2019. Siemens’ investment in RISC-V systems development is a continued commitment. Last year, Siemens delivered one of the first commercial real-time operating systems (RTOS) for RISC-V architectures. 

“Siemens is a respected collaboration partner to many in the industry, and their contributions to the success of the RISC-V community are especially apparent in the embedded space,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International. “With their new Yocto solution, we’re witnessing the momentum go fully mainstream together with a rapidly growing ecosystem,”.

Siemens’ Sokol^TMFlex OS for RISC-V platform will be available in Q1 2023. To learn more about this solution visit: https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/global/en/products/embedded/flex-os.html.