FreeRTOS is a popular operating system designed for small, simple processors often known as microcontrollers. It is available under the MIT open source license and runs on many different Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs). Amazon FreeRTOS extends FreeRTOS with a collection of IoT-oriented libraries that provide additional networking and security features including support for Bluetooth Low Energy, Over-the-Air Updates, and Wi-Fi.

RISC-V is a free and open ISA that was designed to be simple, extensible, and easy to implement. The simplicity of the RISC-V model, coupled with its permissive BSD license, makes it ideal for a wide variety of processors, including low-cost microcontrollers that can be manufactured without incurring license costs. The RISC-V model can be implemented in many different ways, as you can see from the RISC-V cores page. Development tools, including simulators, compilers, and debuggers, are also available.

Today I am happy to announce that we are now providing RISC-V support in the FreeRTOS kernel. The kernel supports the RISC-V I profile (RV32I and RV64I) and can be extended to support any RISC-V microcontroller. It includes preconfigured examples for the OpenISA VEGAboard, QEMU emulator for SiFive’s HiFive board, and Antmicro’s Renode emulator for the Microchip M2GL025 Creative Board.

You now have a powerful new option for building smart devices that are more cost-effective than ever before!

— Jeff;