Siemens Digital Industries Software announced that its Sokol Flex OS software now supports Risc-V embedded development with the availability of one of the industry’s first commercially supported, extensible, and customizable Linux platforms for the Risc-V architecture. Based on the popular, open-source Yocto Project industry standard, Siemens‘ Sokol Flex OS helps embedded developers create customized, Linux-based systems for Risc-V architectures with ease, security and confidence. The Risc-V architecture is ideally suited for industrial, medical, defense-aerospace, and consumer applications. Semico Research predicts that global deployment of the architecture will reach 62.4 billion cores by 2025.

Siemens’ Sokol Flex OS for the Risc-V architecture streamlines application development, allowing customers to focus on value-add differentiation. Security and cloud enabled, Siemens’ Sokol Flex OS features built-in security to monitor and detect common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and is commercially supported to help customers develop reliable systems. In addition, Sokol Flex OS for Risc-V customers receive quarterly updates and security patches, including a robust toolchain for software performance analysis. “Siemens continues to show leadership within the Risc-V ecosystem with the launch of Sokol Flex OS for Risc-V,” said Krishnakumar Ramamoorthi, senior product marketing manager of Microchip Technology's FPGA business unit. “Now Polarfire SoC FPGA users can leverage a commercially supported Linux distribution backed by the power of Siemens.“

Siemens is a strategic member of Risc-V International and has been involved in its development and adoption since 2019. Demonstrating Siemens’ ongoing investment and commitment to Risc-V technology, the company last year delivered one of the industry’s first commercial real-time operating systems (RTOS) for Risc-V architectures. “Siemens is a respected collaboration partner to many in the industry, and their contributions to the success of the Risc-V community are especially apparent in the embedded space,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of Risc-V International. “With their new solution, we’re witnessing the momentum go fully mainstream together with a rapidly growing ecosystem.” Siemens’ Sokol Flex OS for Risc-V platform will be available in Q1 2023.