Arm's announcement on July 9th, stating the termination of support for the open-source embedded operating system Mbed OS by July 2026, has sparked extensive discussions within the embedded development community. Following this decision, the Mbed website will be archived, and online tools for project building will no longer be available.

Impact on Arduino and Response

The decision affects projects supported by Arm, such as micro, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi. Arduino responded to this development with a blog post on July 24th, revealing their proactive approach. Years ago, Arduino began seeking alternative solutions and in 2023, joined the Zephyr project as a silver member. They found a promising alternative within ZephyrOS.

To ensure continuity for users accustomed to Arduino's language and libraries, Arduino plans to develop an Arduino core based on the Zephyr platform. The first test version is scheduled for release by the end of 2024, with widespread deployment across various development boards starting in 2025. Arduino assures its community that the discontinuation of Mbed will have no practical impact on Arduino programming.

Conclusion

Arduino's proactive adoption of ZephyrOS underscores its commitment to maintaining seamless user experiences amid changes in embedded OS support. As they prepare to transition, users can expect continued support and innovation from Arduino.