• Arduino's Decision: From July 2026, Arduino will use Zephyr RTOS instead of Arm Mbed for boards relying on Mbed, like Arduino GIGA, Nano 33 BLE, Nano RP2040 Connect, and PRO boards (Portenta, Nicla, Opta). Arduino UNO, MKR, and Nano families are not affected as they don't rely on Mbed.
• Software Transition Timeline: The change won't happen overnight. Arduino plans to release the first beta based on ZephyrOS by the end of 2024 and start rolling it out for various boards in 2025, long before Arm Mbed is completely phased out.
• Arduino and Zephyr: Arduino became a Silver member of the Zephyr project last year. Work on developing an Arduino core based on Zephyr has been ongoing. End users should not notice differences when switching from Mbed-based to Zephyr-based Arduino Code as the Arduino APIs exposed by the abstraction layer won't change. Zephyr was introduced in 2016 and has been used in several products over the years.
• Impact on Other Projects: The phasing out of Mbed will also affect BBC micro:bit and Raspberry Pi (Pico), which will have to make a similar transition to Zephyr OS, FreeRTOS, NuttX, or another real-time operating system.
• Author and Donation: Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 and became a full-time writer in 2011. He encourages support through donations via cryptocurrencies, becoming a Patron on Patreon, or purchasing goods on Amazon or AliExpress. Affiliate links are also used to earn commissions.