Blog

October 15, 2026

Tokens Improve IoT Security

Even though malware may be sand-boxed in an isolated partition, it can still attack system objects. Despite isolated partitioning, a hacker might determine a valid RTOS object address and operate on it.

September 28, 2026

Task Runtime Limits

A common attack vector for IoT and embedded devices is to put a task into an infinite loop. This blocks all equal and lower-priority tasks from running. This article looks into how this kind of attack can be prevented.

August 22, 2026

RTOS Pitfalls

There is a widespread belief that simpler is better for RTOSs. But if you find that you are spending time programming around your RTOS’s deficiencies or debugging problems due to it not behaving as expected, then it is not serving you well.

August 16, 2026

Interrupt and Task RTOS Latencies

Interrupt latency can vary considerably from RTOS to RTOS. Poorly designed, small RTOSs can have much worse interrupt latency than well-designed full-featured RTOSs.

An Event Friendly RTOS

There is increasing interest in active objects (AOs) to deal with the problems of handling events in complex real-time systems. Events are generally signaled by interrupts. In order to minimize interrupt service routine (ISR) complexity most RTOSs allow tasks to do deferred interrupt processing. There are many problems with this.

Zephyr vs. SecureSMX for Security

High security for IoT devices is about to become mandatory in Europe, so it is important to pick an RTOS that supports it. Two leading contenders are Zephyr and SecureSMX (SSMX). This article explores the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Bare Metal is Risky

Most bare-metal to RTOS comparisons focus on technical decision factors and miss important business factors.

eheap Part 5: Special Features

eheap has several interesting features that help to find usage errors, tune performance, and improve resiliency.

eheap Part 4: Chunks

A chunk is the basic unit of a heap. eheap supports three types of chunks: free, inuse, and debug.

eheap Part 3: Allocations

eheap supports basic heap allocation and free operations, but with more parameters.

eheap Part 2: Bins

Like dlmalloc and similar heaps, embedded heap uses bins to hold free chunks. However, eheap bins are designed for the needs of embedded systems.

eheap Part 1: Basics

embedded heap, eheap, is specifically designed for embedded systems. Traditionally, embedded systems have used block pools instead of heaps due to the need for determinism. However, that is changing.