Embedded Glossary

OP-TEE (Open Portable Trusted Execution Environment) is an open-source trusted execution environment for ARM-based systems that complements a non-secure Linux kernel. It primarily uses Arm TrustZone technology to provide hardware isolation. OP-TEE supports protected execution of security-critical functions.

OpenEmbedded is an open-source build framework that can be used to create tailored Embedded Linux systems from source code and further components. So-called recipes and layers describe how individual software components are fetched, configured, compiled, and assembled into a system image. The separation of description and the actual build process enables reproducible and versionable builds and facilitates the maintenance of complex systems. Together with the tools and metadata of the Yocto Project, OpenEmbedded forms the technical basis for numerous professional Embedded Linux products and distributions. Compared with the more leanly structured Buildroot, OpenEmbedded offers an extensive layer and metadata model that is particularly suitable for complex product lines maintained over the long term. In addition, different package formats and mechanisms for package management can be generated for the target system. OpenEmbedded supports flexible package management for the target system.

An OS image is a system image for an embedded device. It usually contains the kernel, a root file system, and configuration data. Depending on deployment requirements, the bootloader may also be included. Written to non-volatile memory, it provides a reproducible software baseline at each startup. This supports consistent software states.