Training Zephyr RTOS Programming: From Theory to Practice

oRT5Zephyr RTOS Programming
From Theory to Practice
Objectives
  • Learn how to develop, configure, debug and trace Zephyr applications
  • Devicetree and Kconfig usage and development
  • Zephyr real time multitasking overview
  • Using west and writing west manifest
  • Understand the Zephyr kernel Services and ecosystem
  • Learn communication and synchronization mechanisms
  • Understand Zephyr memory management and data structures
  • Understand User mode and kernel mode separation
  • Writing a device tree and developing Zephyr drivers
  • Using and integrating common Zephyr subsystems
  • Theoretical course
    • PDF course material (in English).
    • Course dispensed using the Teams video-conferencing system.
    • The trainer answers trainees' questions during the training and provide technical and pedagogical assistance through the Teams video-conferencing system.
  • Practical activities
    • Practical activities represent from 40% to 50% of course duration.
    • Code examples, exercises and solutions
    • One Online Linux PC per trainee for the practical activities.
    • The trainer has access to trainees' Online PCs for technical and pedagogical assistance.
    • Eclipse environment and GCC compiler.
    • QEMU Emulated board or physical board connected to the online PC (depending on the course).
    • Some Labs may be completed between sessions and are checked by the trainer on the next session.
  • Downloadable preconfigured virtual machine for post-course practical activities
  • At the start of each session the trainer will interact with the trainees to ensure the course fits their expectations and correct if needed
  • Total: 30 hours
  • 5 sessions, 6 hours each (excluding break time)
  • From 40% to 50% of training time is devoted to practical activities
  • Some Labs may be completed between sessions and are checked by the trainer on the next session
  • Any embedded systems engineer or technician with the above prerequisites.
  • The prerequisites indicated above are assessed before the training by the technical supervision of the traineein his company, or by the trainee himself in the exceptional case of an individual trainee.
  • Trainee progress is assessed in two different ways, depending on the course:
    • For courses lending themselves to practical exercises, the results of the exercises are checked by the trainer while, if necessary, helping trainees to carry them out by providing additional details.
    • Quizzes are offered at the end of sections that do not include practical exercises to verifythat the trainees have assimilated the points presented
  • At the end of the training, each trainee receives a certificate attesting that they have successfully completed the course.
    • In the event of a problem, discovered during the course, due to a lack of prerequisites by the trainee a different or additional training is offered to them, generally to reinforce their prerequisites,in agreement with their company manager if applicable.

Course Outline

  • Zephyr Ecosystem
  • Why use Zephyr
    • Drivers’ API abstraction
    • Hardware-agnostic configuration
    • Modular Architecture
  • Host tools dependencies
  • Install and Use Zephyr
  • Overview
    • West
    • CMake
    • Toolchains and Zephyr SDK
    • VSCode Configuration
  • Application components and structure
    • Application
    • Modules
    • West workspace
  • West
    • Why west?
    • Usage
    • Manifest
    • Topologies
    • Commands
Exercise:  Getting started with Zephyr and using west
Exercise:  Writing a custom west manifest
  • Overview
  • Kconfig
    • Default configuration
    • Interactive configuration tools
    • Config fragments
  • Devicetree
    • Syntax
    • Standard properties
    • Device Tree node structure
    • Device Tree bindings
    • Initial devicetree source
    • Access devicetree from source code
    • Overlays
    • Best practices
  • Snippets
Exercise:  Write a device tree overlay
  • Operations without Threads
  • Common subsytems
    • GPIOs
    • DeviceTree specification structures dt_spec
  • Utilities
  • Preprocessor meta-programming macros
  • Data Structures
    • Single-linked List
    • Double-linked List
    • Ring Buffers
Exercise:  Using X-Macros in Zephyr and understanding CONTAINER_OF
  • Thread Fundamentals
    • Thread Control Block
    • Creating Threads
    • Threads Priorities
    • Thread States
  • Main and Idle Threads
  • System Initialization
  • Delays and timeout
  • Kernel Structures
    • Simple linked-list ready queue
    • Red/black tree ready queue
    • Traditional multi-queue ready queue
  • Thread Custom Data
Exercise:  Create and manage threads
Exercise:  Create periodic threads
  • Runtime Statistics
  • Scheduling Traces
    • User-Defined Tracing
    • Percepio Tracealyzer
Exercise:  Create config overlay for visual trace diagnostics using Tracealyzer
  • Memory Overview
  • Dynamic memory managers
    • K_heap
    • System heap
    • Memory Slabs
    • Memory Blocks
  • Heap Listeners
  • Thread Resource Pools
  • RAM/ROM reports
  • Stack information
    • Stack analysis
    • Puncover
    • High watermark
  • Stack overflow detection
Exercise:  Understand dynamic memory allocation in Zephyr
Exercise:  Display threads information and detect stack overflow
  • Overview
  • Memory Domains
    • Partitions
    • Logical apps
  • Syscalls
    • Kernel objects
    • Permissions
  • Mutual Exclusion
  • Mutexes
  • Gatekeeper threads
  • Critical Sections
  • Atomic
  • SpinLocks
  • Semaphores
  • Events
  • Polling
Exercise:  The producer-consumer problem, synchronize and avoid concurrent access problems
Exercise:  Understanding event bit group by synchronizing several threads
  • Data passing
    • Message Queues
    • Queues (FIFOs & LIFOs)
    • Mailboxes
    • Pipes
    • Stacks
  • Zephyr Bus (Zbus)
    • Zbus overview
    • Elements
    • Usage
Exercise:  Create a print gatekeeper thread using message queue
Exercise:  Synchronous communication using mailboxes
  • Threads and Interrupts
  • Interrupts in zephyr
  • Interrupts on ARM Cortex-M
  • Handler thread
  • Queue within an ISR
  • Workqueue Threads
Exercise:  Understand how to wait on multiple events and interrupt safe APIs
Exercise:  Understand how to pass data using Queues from an interrupt to a thread
Exercise:  Create and submit work items from interrupts to custom WorkQueue
  • Timers
    • Defining a Timer
    • Using a Timer Expiry Function
  • Timer types
    • One-shot timers
    • Auto-reload timers
  • Timer Commands
Exercise:  Understand the use of one-shot and auto-reload timers
  • Why to use modules?
  • Module structure
  • Out-of-tree module
  • Module’s YAML
  • Module CMakeLists.txt
Exercise:  Create a basic module
  • Advantages
  • Kconfig Options in Zephyr RTOS
  • Configuration System
  • Writing custom Kconfig Options
  • Kconfig extension
  • Using Kconfigs
Exercise:  Create and configure a module that uses custom Kconfig options
  • Zephyr Device Driver Model
    • Overview and its role
  • Standard Drivers
    • The struct device
    • Subsystems
    • Device definition
  • API Extensions
  • Devices allocation and initialization
  • Using drivers in application
  • Initialization Levels
    • Dependencies between device drivers
Exercise:  Create a driver that respects the Zephyr Device Driver Model and define devices
  • Overview of Device Tree (DT) and its role in Zephyr
  • Device Tree VS Kconfig
  • Device Tree node structure
  • Device Tree bindings
  • Overlay and yaml files
  • APIs to access device tree properties
  • Write device drivers using device tree APIs
  • Device Tree in Zephyr VS Linux
  • Adding In-Tree Code to Zephyr Source Code
  • Common properties
    • compatible
    • reg
    • interrupts
Exercise:  Create a driver that uses custom device tree and Kconfig
Exercise:  Writing in-tree drivers
  • Overview
  • System Power Management
  • Device Power Management
    • System-Managed
    • Runtime
  • Power domains
Exercise:  Write a driver compatible with power management subsystem
Duration
30 hours
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Next scheduled public sessions
from 9th to 13th of June, 2025
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from 16th to 20th of June, 2025
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Last update of course schedule: 24 April 2025

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