Memfault, which provides an Internet of Things (IoT)-based reliability platform, has announced that its solution now includes full support for embedded Linux. This expansion, according to the company, offers cross-platform support for developers building on microcontroller units (MCUs), Android-based devices or embedded Linux for any hardware, for an unlimited number of devices running any use case.
Memfault’s IoT reliability platform enables teams to build devices with software at scale. The company says it applies device reliability engineering techniques to improve how developers build and operate IoT and edge devices, providing performance-monitoring, debugging and over-the-air (OTA) update capabilities. The platform is intended to help developers address operational challenges via fleet observability, remote debugging, and smart firmware OTA management.
According to Memfault, embedded Linux developers will now have access to its device reliability engineering tools, which offer insights to product, engineering and support teams regarding embedded device performance. The company’s device reliability engineering capabilities will be made available across all product lines, enabling teams to make product changes regardless of device hardware and operating system, and without impacting device fleets.
The Memfault platform is available for Linux-, Android- and MCU-based device developers. Memfault works across both high- and low-throughput transports, providing flexibility via compatibility with various connectivity protocols, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular, LoRa, Thread and Zigbee, and the company has also announced recent partnerships with Infineon, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, Silicon Labs, Laird Connectivity and other businesses.
“As engineers, we’ve remained committed to giving device developers the ultimate freedom when building, monitoring and continuously improving IoT devices at scale,” said François Baldassari, Memfault’s CEO, in the statement. “Adding Linux support means that regardless of which chipset or operating system is in place, developers will have essential tools for building the best product possible, de-risking product launches, and giving end users the kind of premium experience they’ve come to expect.”
Embedded Linux developers will have full access to Memfault’s IoT reliability platform, enabling them to ship products faster and fix issues more quickly with in-field maintenance capabilities, the company reports. For OTA updates, the platform is designed to eliminate the need to repartition devices or update bootloaders. The system is compatible with the Hawkbit API, and users can point a compatible OTA on-device agent, such as SWUpdate. to Memfault’s endpoints to gain access to cohort management, device registry and observability functionalities.
For remote monitoring, Memfault’s system is customizable and offers memory, process, disk and network statistics for insights into device performance. Telemetry data is sent to the cloud, then is processed and distilled to fleet-wide time-series metrics, device attributes and per-device insights via the Timeline UI. Developers can enable Memfault’s alerting feature to operate a fleet of Linux devices. For debugging, the company collects application and system service errors across the stack, along with debug artifacts such as backtrace, memory snapshots and breadcrumbs. In addition, the firm provides automated symbolication, de-duplication and correlation when processing core dumps.
“Memfault has helped us understand the health of our microcontrollers in the field, and now that they are offering the same capabilities for full Linux devices, we’re excited to unify our entire monitoring stack in one place,” said Joey Degges, Span‘s senior manager of device software, in a prepared statement. “Not only will this accelerate our development and improve our products and user experience, but Memfault’s expansion will also position Span for rapid growth and innovation. With tools this great for field monitoring and debugging it’s hard to imagine life before them. With the addition of Linux, Memfault is really in a realm of its own.”