The Yocto Project is an open source project initiated by the Linux Foundation, which makes development on embedded devices easier and portable. It's an end-to-end embedded Linux development environment with various tools, configuration files and documenta

The industry has seen a proliferation of embedded devices and processors. As these have grown more powerful and feature-rich, the use and popularity of the Linux operating system has skyrocketed. One of the driving factors for its popularity is because it remains open source, offers free licensing and extensive usage, which in turn has led to an abundance of applications.

However, embedded developers cannot simply pick up a standard Linux distribution or application for use in their tiny environments. They face challenging tasks like handpicking boot-loaders, the kernel, libraries, applications, DQG GHYHORSPHQW WRROV VSHFLfiF WR WKHLU FuVWRP KDUGZDUH environment, before cross-compiling and optimising them to fiW LQ WKHLU PLQuVFuOH HPEHGGHG HQYLURQPHQWV.

The solutions to these challenges are not easy, and a developer’s group will need considerable effort, experience and exposure to address them. Moreover, spending time on these problems will leave developers with little time and energy to really concentrate on the core task of building excellent features for their boards. Non-commercial and commercial embedded Linux GLVWULEuWRUV RIIHU ZHOO-WHVWHG VROuWLRQV IRU VSHFLfiF HPEHGGHG processors, but for an embedded developer, this is a nightmare. bvery new project demands the learning of a new set of tools and development environments prior to even getting started. wise, it came out as the most advanced system in the market, DQG EHLQg VSHFLfiFDOOy GHVLgQHG IRU WKH FuVWRPLVDWLRQ QHHGV RI the embedded market space, soon became the industry standard. A large number of organisations were using Ob, which in turn increased support and enhanced the internals of the Ob. While EHLQg D YHUy gRRG fiUVW-RI-LWV-NLQG EDVH, 2( VuIIHUHG GuH WR LWV complexity, steep learning curve and lack of documentation. Apart from being a build system, Ob started to collate various other tools as well—while it was inherently not designed to do so.

In November 2010, industry leaders joined together to form the Yocto mroject under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, and announced that the work would continue under this new name. Despite Yocto being a fork of Openbmbedded, the common areas are now down to Ob-core. This is mutually EHQHfiFLDO IRU ERWK 2( DQG YRFWR, ZKHUH WKH UHVuOWDQW RuWSuW LV D high-quality Ob-core with fewer fully featured software tools in a single framework. Yocto got a head start with a project built on commercial learnings and community acceptance.