California-based Memfault has added embedded Linux to its IoT device reliability platform.

Adding Linux support to existing Android, RTOS and bare metal support should give developers more flexibility and control over connected product development and device operations.

The expansion offers cross-platform support for RTOS, bare metal, Android or Linux developers building on any hardware for any number of devices running any use case, anywhere.

With Memfault’s IoT reliability platform, developers can solve operational problems via fleet observability, remote debugging and smart firmware over-the-air (OTA) management. Embedded Linux developers will now have easy access to Memfault’s device reliability engineering tools that offer product, engineering and support teams insights into embedded device performance, irrespective of the hardware.

Memfault’s device reliability engineering capabilities will be available across all product lines enabling teams to make product changes irrespective of device hardware and operating system with the confidence that it won’t impact their device fleets.

“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, senior manager of device software at Span. “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.”

Memfault works across high- and low-throughput transports, giving flexibility through compatibility with virtually any connectivity protocol, including Bluetooth, wifi, cellular, LoRa, Thread and Zigbee.

This announcement comes on the heels of a number of strategic partnerships for Memfault, including with Infineon, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Silicon Labs and Laird Connectivity.

“As engineers, we’ve remained committed to giving device developers the ultimate freedom when building, monitoring and continuously improving IoT devices at scale,” said Heiko Behrens, head of product at Memfault. “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 premium experience they’ve come to expect.”

Memfault de-risks OTA updates and enables teams to ship bug fixes and feature updates more frequently by eliminating the need to repartition devices or update bootloaders. Compatible with the Hawkbit API, 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.

Memfault provides full visibility into the health of devices for more stability and predictability. It is customisable and offers hundreds of out-of-the-box statistics such as memory, processes, disk and network for instant insight into device performance. Telemetry data are sent to the cloud, then processed and distilled to fleet-wide time-series metrics, device attributes, and detailed per-device insights via the Timeline UI.

Memfault helps teams solve problems before they impact customers. It collects application and system service errors across the stack, as well as debug artefacts such as backtrace, memory snapshots and breadcrumbs, and sends alerts when issues arise. In addition, Memfault provides automated symbolication, deduplication and correlation when processing core dumps.

This is said to be the first IoT reliability platform that empowers teams to build robust devices with software at scale. Memfault applies device reliability engineering techniques to transform the way developers build and operate IoT and edge devices.

As IoT applications continue to grow in complexity, it is more important for developers to integrate performance monitoring, debugging and OTA update capabilities into their devices.

Memfault was built to give developers a more scalable and sustainable process to accelerate go-to-market, de-risk product launches, cut product costs, and deliver overall superior products. The company was founded by engineers with decades of experience from Fitbit, Oculus and Pebble. It is backed by Uncork Capital, Partech, S28 Capital and Y Combinator.