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From board to field: embedded Linux across industries

We build and maintain the Linux systems inside products in many industries. We start at the first board bring-up, and we stay for the years of software updates that follow.

Where we have done the work

O.S. Systems is an embedded Linux engineering company in Pelotas, Brazil, working across nine silicon vendors and four board and module vendors. Every segment below is work we delivered, and not a market we want to enter.

  1. Agriculture

    We work in agriculture for three customers. We built a farm controller platform from nothing and we still maintain it, we keep a range of precision agriculture displays running across kernel versions, and we are standing up a third platform now.

    Hardware

    Allwinner A40i · TI Sitara AM335x · Raspberry Pi CM4

    See the case

  2. Fiscal and POS hardware

    We work on fiscal and point-of-sale hardware for two customers. We restored a lost build and validation environment for one, and we migrated the other onto our own platform, then made its updates and its boots reliable.

    Hardware

    Rockchip RV1108 · RV1106 · Raspberry Pi · x86-64

    See the case

  3. Renewable Energy

    We support a solar energy company on two fronts. We prepared its product for the EU Cyber Resilience Act, and we keep its multi-board platform on a current, security-maintained base.

    Hardware

    NXP i.MX8 · i.MX6ULL · Broadcom

    See the case

  4. Security

    We brought up and stabilised the embedded Linux inside an IP access control panel. We debugged the hardware, added kernel support, and built the installer the production line uses.

    Hardware

    NXP i.MX6

    See the case

  5. Electronics

    We stabilised the desktop on a touchscreen embedded Linux platform, and we extended its hardware support. A real-time clock driver and a GPIO expander driver went in.

    Hardware

    Boundary Devices Nitrogen i.MX6 · Raspberry Pi CM4

    See the case

  6. Healthcare

    We support connected healthcare device platforms end to end, for two customers. We debug audio and GPIO faults, we add connectivity and multimedia, we package the on-device interface, and we build a camera platform from nothing.

    Hardware

    NXP i.MX8M · Boundary Devices module

    See the case

  7. Music

    We built the embedded Linux platform inside a touchscreen electronic instrument from the ground up. It carries the bootloader, the kernel, over-the-air updates and a Chromium kiosk interface.

    Hardware

    NXP i.MX6

    See the case

  8. Urban Mobility

    We bring up embedded Linux for traffic radar and connected mobility devices. We build the boot chain, the update pipeline and the connectivity, and we keep the data on the device safe when the network is not there.

    Hardware

    NXP i.MX8 · Toradex Apalis i.MX6 · Broadcom

    See the case

  9. Mining

    We built the embedded Linux platform for mining equipment displays, from the machine definition and the kernel port up to a browser-based interface. We then built the middleware the customer's applications talk to, and we evaluated how the boards are tested on the production line.

    Hardware

    NXP i.MX6Q

    See the case

  10. Smart Home Systems

    We added tamper detection support for a real-time clock in a smart home device. The chip records when someone interferes with it, and the kernel driver did not expose that. Now it does.

    Hardware

    Allwinner H3 · NXP PCF85263A

    See the case

No case is published yet

  • Information technology
  • Maritime transport

Your segment may not be drawn. That means we have no case we can publish yet. It does not mean we have not done the work. Tell us what you build.

What keeps running after launch

None of the work above stops at deployment. We wrote the two products below because the jobs you just read needed them, and both problems they answer arrive only after a product ships.

  1. UpdateHub

    A device in the field has to get better after it ships, and a truck roll is not an answer. UpdateHub is the over-the-air update platform we wrote for that, with a device agent and a server.

    Explore UpdateHub

  2. ShellHub

    When a device fails in the field, somebody still has to reach it. ShellHub gives SSH access to a device behind a firewall, and no device needs a public address.

    Explore ShellHub

Both are open source. We use them on our own customer work first.

Neither one is a separate business. They are what the work above needed, and you can use them without hiring us. All our products

Questions we are asked

  1. What industries does O.S. Systems work in?

    We publish cases in ten segments. They are agriculture, fiscal and point-of-sale hardware, renewable energy, security, electronics, healthcare, music, urban mobility, mining and smart home systems. We work in two more and cannot publish a case for those yet.

  2. Does O.S. Systems build custom embedded Linux images?

    Yes. We build the board support package, the kernel, the bootloader and the Yocto Project build. Your own developers can run that build.

  3. What is UpdateHub?

    UpdateHub is our open-source platform for over-the-air firmware updates. It has a device agent and a server. We wrote it and we maintain it.

  4. What is ShellHub?

    ShellHub is our open-source platform for SSH access to devices. It reaches a device behind a firewall, and no device needs a public address.

  5. Does O.S. Systems only work with companies that already have hardware built?

    No. We can join while the hardware is still a design decision, and not after the boards arrive. We also take on a product that already ships.

Tell us what your product must do

Write one paragraph about the product, the silicon and the deadline. An engineer who does this work will read it and answer you.

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