ChibiOS/RT is designed for embedded applications on microcontrollers of 8-, 16-, and 32-bits. Size and execution efficiency are the main project goals.[3] As reference, the kernel size can range from a minimum of 1.2 KiB up to a maximum of 5.5 KiB with all the subsystems activated on a STM32 Cortex-M3 processor. The kernel can achieve over 220,000 created/terminated threads per second and can perform a context switch in 1.2 microseconds on an STM32 @ 72 MHz. Similar metrics for all the supported platforms are included in the source code distribution as test reports.
All system objects, such as threads, semaphores, timers, etc., can be created and deleted at runtime. There is no upper limit except for the available memory. To increase system reliability, the kernel architecture is entirely static, a memory allocator is not needed (but is available as an option), and there are no data structures with upper size limits like tables or arrays. The system application programming interfaces (APIs) are designed to not have error conditions such as error codes or exceptions.
Contributed ports are also available for the Coldfire and H8S families.[5]
ChibiOS/RT has also been ported to the Raspberry Pi[6] and the following device drivers have been implemented: Port (GPIO), Serial, GPT (General-Purpose Timer), I2C, SPI and PWM.
It is also possible to run the kernel in a Win32process in a software I/O emulation mode, allowing easy application development without the need for physical hardware. An example is included for MinGWcompiler.
uGFX
ChibiOS/RT is fully supported by the graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit µGFX, formerly named ChibiOS/GFX.
^Di Sirio, Giovanni. "The ARMv7-M Port". ChibiOS.org. Retrieved 20 August 2020. This port includes support for all devices using one of the following cores: Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7
