(Apache) NuttX
A Linux-like RTOS for Microcontrollers
Alan Carvalho de Assis
Senior Embedded System Engineer
Espressif Systems Brazil ,
Abstract— Linux has followed a long and amazing journey to
become the standard OS when people think about a "Feature
Rich Embedded" OS, but yet it has its drawbacks: it requires a
processor with MMU (the no-mmu/uClinux has many
limitations that will be discussed during the article); it requires
a lot of RAM and Flash memory to run; its power-
consumption is high; its boot time is long (dozens of seconds
to minutes), and the list goes on. These limitations make
Linux not the best choice for resource-constrained devices.
In order to correct many of these limitations, in 2007 Mr.
Gregory Nutt released an RTOS he had created from scratch,
called NuttX (just like Linux also refers to its creator, Linus
Torvalds). NuttX was implemented from scratch to be small,
fast, POSIX and ANSI compliant, and run on small
microcontrollers and even on 64-bit Intel/AMD, RISC-V and
ARM processors. And most importantly: to be Unix/Linux-
like RTOS.
I. INTRODUCTION (Heading 1)
Linux is everywhere nowadays. It runs on TVs [1], WiFi
routers [2], Smartphones [3] [4], Smartwatches[5], Cars[6],
Refrigerators[7] and even on SpaceX Falcon [8][9]. But Linux
success didn't happen overnight.
Linux was created more than 30 years ago as a general
purpose operating system for PCs. In 1991 Linus Torvalds,
creator of Linux, released his famous message in the minix
usergroup announcing about his project:
“Hello everybody out there using minix –
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be
big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. […] It
is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably
never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s
all I have :-(.” [31]
From his words it was clear what were Linux's limitations at
the time, it was not planned to run on anything other than an
Intel 386 processor that Linus was using to write it. Actually
that statement proved to be wrong and just four years later the
Linux kernel was ported to Alpha DEC [30], SUN Sparc and
MIPS.
Alin Jerpelea
Senior Open Source Software Architect
Sony Europe
Soon after that Linux started to be used on some embedded
applications as well. In fact, in 1997 Dave Cinege created the
Linux Router Project [29] that was considered the first real
embedded Linux project [28].
In the following year (1998) a new important milestone for
Linux in the embedded system arena was reached: Kenneth
Albanowski and D. Jeff Dionne began working on the uClinux
project. uClinux was a port of Linux kernel to processor
without MMU (Memory Management Unit). The initial port
was to the Motorola MC68328 DragonBall processor that was
used by PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) [27] such as 3Com
PalmPilot and Pilot III.
Then in 2002 a company called SnapGear Inc that was
contributing to the uClinux project and using it in their
products submitted the uClinux patches to kernel mainline that
were included on Linux 2.5.46 [26]. Since then in the Linux
source code tree there is a "no-mmu" directory that enables the
Linux kernel to run on processors without MMU.
Despite the fact of Linux been used on many embedded
system projects it has some drawbacks and limitations, just to
list some: 1) it requires at least 2MB Flash and 4MB RAM to
run [25]; 2) its boot time is too long for some applications
(there are some hacks that try to improve it, like saving a
booted image on disc/flash and just load it directly to the
RAM); 3) it is not a Realtime kernel (although there are
patches that can be applied to the kernel to improve its
realtime capabilities, it still best effort scenario, the kernel
wasn't designed from scratch to be realtime); 4) it is not a
good option for low power applications because it needs to run
on processor that consumes too much power and scaling down
the CPU frequency to few MHz is not an option because the
kernel by itself requires too many CPU cycles to do its job; 5)
and most importantly the GPL license is a source of concern
for some companies because they need to release the source
code [32].
It's important to note that although Linux can run on
processors without MMU it cannot run on low-cost
microcontrollers that have few KB of RAM and Flash,
because its size is too big to fit in the Flash and it requires too
much RAM memory to start-up.
www.embedded-world.eu

So, to solve these issues in 2007 Gregory Nutt released the
NuttX RTOS. This RTOS is what Linux should be for
microcontrollers. In the next sections we will discuss what
NuttX is, which problems NuttX solves.
I.What is NuttX?
According with Wikipedia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuttX]:
"NuttX is a free and open-source Real-Time Operating System
(RTOS) with an emphasis on technical standards compliance
and on having a small footprint. Scalable from 8-bit to 64-bit
microcontroller environments, the main governing standards
in NuttX are from the Portable Operating System Interface
(POSIX) and the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI)."
NuttX also has many subsystems similar to those existent on
Linux. Several examples include Virtual File System (VFS),
Memory Technology Device (MTD), Audio subsystem and
USB system with USB composite support [24]. Some of the
most important characteristics of NuttX are:
Modular
Fully preemptible
Naturally scalable
Highly configurable
Easily extensible to new processor architectures
Real-time
Deterministic
Support for priority inheritance
Support for On-Demand Paging
Flexibles memory modes: FLAT, PROTECTED and
KERNEL modes
NuttX started as a personal project of Gregory Nutt that he
released as open-source on February 27 of 2007 in the
sourceforge [23]. Greg had previous experience creating
RTOS for military, aerospace and consumer electronics
applications [22] and he also worked developing embedded
systems with embedded Linux. So he used that previous
knowledge to create NuttX.
He worked uninterruptedly from 2007 to 2019 adding new
features and improving the system. Then in 2019 the project
was donated to Apache Software Foundation and on
November 17 2022 it became a Top Level Project of Apache
[21]. Side note: just like some people defend that Linux needs
to be called GNU/Linux, there are people that defend that
NuttX needs to be called Apache NuttX.
The initial NuttX version 0.0.1 released in 2007 had only
support for ARM7 (TMS320C5471) and for Linux user mode
simulator, but less than one year later he added support for
8051 and Z80 to confirm that NuttX was small enough to run
on 8-bit microcontrollers [20].
Currently NuttX supports dozen of hardware architectures
(i.e.: arm, arm64, avr, hc, mips, misoc, or1k, m16c, risc-v (32-
bit and 64-bit, with or without MMU), sh1, sim, sparc, x86,
x86_64, xtensa, z16, z80) and hundreds of microcontrollers
and microprocessors [19].
II. Which features does NuttX have to offer for
Embedded System Developers
Since NuttX is a POSIX RTOS then an embedded system
developer can write an application in a POSIX operating
system such as Linux, MacOS or even Windows using
Cygwin or WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) and validate
it and compile it to run on NuttX without learning a new API.
Also because of this strict POSIX compatibility the developers
don't need to create an application from scratch, they can grab
some small Linux libraries and perform some minor
modifications to get them working on NuttX [18]. In some
cases they don't even need to modify anything when the
library is truly POSIX compatible.
Besides this inherent advantage of being POSIX, NuttX also
has many drivers and features that help developers during their
embedded project development. Let's to enumerate some of
NuttX features and drivers by subsections for make it easier to
follow:
a. File Systems:
VFS - Virtual File System
FAT File System (including FAT12, FAT16
and FAT32);
HOSTFS - Allow to mount a host computer
directory as a file system of NuttX
LittleFS - LittleFS was integrated on NuttX
kernel
NFS - Network File System, to mount a FS
exported over the network
NXFFS - NuttX Flash File System, original
NuttX FS to use with NOR Flash
PROCFS - Similar to Linux's ProcFS, it
exports kernel information over the FS
ROMFS - Similar to Linux's ROMFS, low
to mount a read-only FS embedded in the FS
RPMSGFS - RPMSG File System, to
mount remote directories to local
SPIFFS - Port of the SPIFFS file system
by Peter Andersson
TMPFS - Similar to Linux's TMPFS, allow
to mount RAM memory as FS
UNIONFS - Special FS that allow to fuse
two FS in a simple mount point
 USERFS - Similar to Filesystem Userspace
(FUSE) of Linux
b. Network Protocols and Resources
6LoWPAN - IPv6 over Low power
Wireless Personal Area Networks
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
Bluetooth - Bluetooth Low Energy
ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol
IGMP - Internet Group Management
Protocol version 2
IP - Internet Protocol (supports IPv4 and
IPv6)
MLD - Multicast Listener Discovery
NAT - Network Address Translation
ROUTING - Packet routing between
different network interfaces
SOCKET - Unix/Raw Socket support
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
UDP - User Datagram Protocol
USRSOCK - User-space networking stack
API
(There are other protocols that are
implemented in user space instead of kernel space).
c. Graphics support
Framebuffer - similar to Linux
Framebuffer
LCD - support to LCD devices
OLED - support to OLED devices
NX Server - minimalist X11 like graphic
server
NX Libs - graphic library for drawing on
NX server
NXWidget - high-level NX components
LVGL - external LVGL graphic library
VNC - VNC server
d. USB Host support
CDC/ACM - allow to detect and use
external USB/Serial devices
CDC/MBIM - allow to detect and use
external USB Modem
Mass Storage - allow to detect and use
external USB Thumb drivers
HID Keyboard - allow to detect and user
external USB Keyboards
HID Joystick - allow to use external
joysticks
HID Mouse - allow to use external mouses
USB HUB - allow to use USB HUB to
expand number of USB ports
e. USB Device support
ADB - allow a NuttX board to be debugged
as a Android Debug Bridge
CDC/ACM - allow a NuttX board to
behavior like a USB/Serial device
Mass Storage - allow a NuttX board to
behavior like a USB Thumb drive
RNDIS Ethernet - allow a NuttX board to
use USB for network communication
CDC-ECM - another option to use USB for
network communication
Composite - allow a NuttX board to
behavior like multiple USB devices
f. Audio support
Ringtone - create audio similar to those
used on old features phones
Audio codecs - such as: VS1053, CS4344,
CS43L22, ES8388, WM8776,
WM8994, etc
NXPlayer - audio player for WAV and
MP3, able to play local file or stream from
internet
There are many other features and drivers outside these above
categories, for example: Peripheral drivers for: SPI, I2C, 1-
Wire, I2S, ADC, DAC, PWM, SDIO/SDCard/MMC,
Quadrature Encoder, RFID, NFC, and many others sensors
and devices using these peripherals; Power Management
support for low power; Tickless kernel mode; Dynamic Binary
Loader; Pseudo Terminal; Kernel Module for load/unload
drivers dynamically; Syslog; Symmetric Multi Processing
(SMP); I/O Redirect; GSM Modem (GPRS, 3G, 4G/LTE, NB-
IoT, Cat-M1) and the listing goes on.
Differently from Linux, NuttX doesn't require a bootloader to
boot. It means that the kernel itself is responsible for
initializing the microcontroller's clock, memory and
everything else. But that doesn't forbid the developer from
using an external bootloader.
Actually there is an integration of MCUBoot [17] bootloader
on NuttX already. It means that a company planning to do
remote firmware update Over The Air could use NuttX and
MCUBoot to accomplish it. Another option is using a second
instance of NuttX itself as bootloader to update the flash area
where the main NuttX and application resides. It option brings
more flexibility than that offered by MCUBoot.
III. Projects and Companies using NuttX RTOS
There are many projects and companies using NuttX for many
different purposes and applications. In [33] the researchers
developed a solution to help people with Parkinson's Disease
in their writing rehabilitation process. Their solution uses a
digital pen connected to an STM32F4Discovery board over
www.embedded-world.eu
USB and they developed a C++ library called FiMoSDK that
implements the handwriting logic and exercises.
In [34] NuttX was used to create the RT-ROS (Realtime
Robot Operating System) project. They used the ROS
framework as base and extended it to support realtime time
application using a multi-core processor approach: running
non-realtime ROS applications on Linux in a core and realtime
control applications in another core running NuttX.
In [35] researchers from Bosch present the micro-ROS project
[16], a ROS framework developed to work on
microcontrollers. In this article they explained about their
micro-ROS Executor that uses NuttX's Sporadic Scheduler
(SCHED_SPORADIC) as base.
An open-source computing platform for robot control is
presented in [36]. Their platform is based on the NXP
LPC4337 microcontroller, but because it was developed over
NuttX they can replace the microcontroller without modifying
their application.
The first successful open-source project with a broad audience
to use NuttX was the PX4 Autopilot and Flight Controller for
drones [15]. The PX4 project was created by Dr. Lorenz Meier
from ETH Zurich in 2011 [37] and it evolved very fast to
support many devices [14].
The next project that brought NuttX attention to the many
companies was ThingSee One from Haltian. They created a
very advanced IoT device and a successful campaign on
Kickstarter [13] and commented that they developed it on top
of NuttX (at video position 2:22). Haltian contributed many of
their developed features back to the NuttX community,
including the USRSOCK subsystem.
Soon after that Sony announced during the ARM TechCon
2016 that they were developing audio product using NuttX
[11] :
"Sony has released audio products based on Cortex-M3.
Considering development efficiency, code reusability and
feature enhancements, we ported POSIX based open source
RTOS named NuttX onto the MCU by ourselves, modified the
NuttX for fast ELF loading, introduced minimum adb (Android
debug bridge) protocols for testing purpose, DVFS in
autonomous mode, wake_lock and stack trace which are
popular in Linux/Android worlds. Middleware and
Applications were developed in C++11 with libc++ which are
also popular for large software systems. To debug the
software, we implemented NuttX support for OpenOCD so that
we can debug multi-threaded applications with gdb."
In the sequence Sony released the Sprense platform [10] also
running NuttX. It is based on Sony Multicore (6x ARM
Cortex-M4F) CXD5602. They submitted support to NuttX
mainline and since then Sony became a constant contributor to
the NuttX project. Masayuki from Sony presented this new
platform in the Embedded Linux Conference Europe in 2019
[12].
But Sony is not the only semiconductor company submitting
support to their chips to the NuttX mainline: Espressif
Systems is also actively contribution code to the project, they
already included ESP32, ESP32-C3, ESP32-C6, ESP32-S2
and ESP32-S3 into NuttX mainline; NXP also submitted
support to some other their chip to the mainline. And slowly
other companies are starting to contribute.
NuttX also was used as the backbone of Google Project Ara
and, although Google didn't release any commercial product
based on it, their source code was used by Motorola to create
the Moto Z series Snap Covers powered by NuttX [40].
More recently a new company called Wilderness Labs created
a .NET C# ecosystem for microcontrollers called Meadow
[42] that runs over the NuttX RTOS. They created their own
implementation using Mono as a starting point. They
contributed their advancements in the Dynamic Library
Loader back to the NuttX community [43].
Another company developing products with NuttX is Xiaomi,
which uses it in their Vela platform [41]. Xiaomi is very active
in the NuttX community submitting a huge amount of patches
every single day.
IV. Conclusion
NuttX was implemented from scratch to be a POSIX
compliant RTOS. It means everything on NuttX was
developed with this idea in mind, even internal APIs of the
kernel also follow this approach. This approach makes even
the kernel driver development a task more orthogonal for
developers, because then they don't need to learn some strange
API.
Also the similarities with Linux kernel subsystems makes the
transition to NuttX something more pleasant for developers.
Embedded Linux developers normally can trace parallels on
solutions they created for Linux and apply those concepts
when developing similar applications to run on
microcontrollers.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that as main
desktops processors moved to 64-bit the Linux focus to 32-bit
is slowly being left to the second plan, as discussed here [38].
In fact, the support for Intel 386, the processor where Linux
was created, was already removed 10 years ago [39].
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