IAR, a global leader in embedded software solutions, has marked a new turning point in safety-centric embedded development.

IAR recently announced commercial-level support for the open-source real-time operating system Zephyr RTOS, along with the release of version 9.70 of its toolchain for Arm, attracting industry attention.

This move is expected to accelerate the adoption of Zephyr RTOS in commercial embedded systems that require security and scalability.

Zephyr RTOS is used in various IoT and edge devices due to its lightweight design, scalability, and community-based development philosophy, and is operated under the leadership of the Linux Foundation.

IAR has been making ongoing technical contributions since joining as an official member in January 2025, and this toolchain update provides a verified development environment for Zephyr 4.1 and later versions.

This release integrates IAR's advanced debugging, RTOS awareness, and code analysis capabilities, enabling developers to gain deeper insight into system performance and operational flow.

In particular, features optimized for CI/CD development methods increase the productivity of the development cycle, and official certification for functional safety-related standards such as ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and IEC 62304 is also planned to be supported.It has strengths in responding to regulations.

“We’ve expanded the IAR platform with commercial-grade support for the Zephyr RTOS, enabling developers to design reliable, scalable systems by combining the flexibility of open source with the advanced tooling capabilities of IAR,” said Thomas Anderson, IAR CPO.

Kate Stewart, Vice President of the Linux Foundation, also said, “The combination of a trusted toolchain and open innovation provides a critical link in the commercial deployment environment.”

The IAR platform supports target devices from major semiconductor manufacturers such as NXP, STMicroelectronics, and Nordic, as well as QEMU-based simulation environments, and is suitable for commercial and industrial applications with its highly optimized compiler and overall system integration capabilities.

More detailed technical information and webinars can be found on the IAR official website and the Zephyr project site.