Introducing East: Streamlining NCS/Zephyr Application Development
Everyday devices, from our smartphones to smart thermostats, are powered by intricate embedded systems. These systems, while often unseen, play a pivotal role in making our devices smart, responsive, and efficient. Yet, behind this seamless operation lies a complex world of development, where precision meets innovation.
Recognizing the challenges and intricacies of this domain, our team at IRNAS sought to create a tool that could simplify the developer’s journey. At the recent Embedded Open Source Summit, Marko took the stage to unveil our solution: East. Crafted to address the specific needs of NCS/Zephyr application development, this post offers insights into East’s creation, features, and the motivation behind it.
East – Companion Tool for Building NCS/Zephyr Applications
Our position as a Nordic design partner and our status as a Zephyr silver member have given us a front-row seat to the challenges and intricacies of embedded systems development. It’s this deep-rooted experience and understanding that drove us to create East. East isn’t merely a tool. It’s a direct response to the challenges we’ve seen and faced. Developed from our unique vantage point in the industry, East is designed to assist developers in navigating the intricate world of Zephyr and/or nRF Connect SDK projects more efficiently.
In the video below, Marko delves deep into
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- The significance of East in the current development landscape.
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- The thought process behind designing East.
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- A hands-on demonstration showcasing the power and utility of East.
What is East?
East is a robust command-line tool, ingeniously built atop Zephyr’s RTOS meta-tool, West, and the renowned Nordic’s nRF Connect Toolchain Manager. The brainchild of Marko and his dedicated team at IRNAS, East was conceived after three rigorous years of working on a myriad of projects harnessing Nordic’s nRF Connect SDK (NCS).
Features that Set East Apart
Automated Toolchain Management: East effortlessly detects and installs the necessary toolchains for NCS projects, eliminating manual hassles.
Sandboxed Development Environment: Seamlessly execute common west commands such as “west build” and “west flash” in a sandboxed environment, ensuring consistency and reliability.
Streamlined Release Process: With East, you can automate your release processes, manage various build types, and more, ensuring that your development cycle is smooth and efficient.
The Inspiration Behind East
Our journey at IRNAS has been filled with challenges that became the catalyst for East’s creation:
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- Managing a plethora of different boards.
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- Handling various build variants.
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- Streamlining the release creation process.
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- Ensuring reproducible build environments.
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- Setting up new projects swiftly and efficiently.
East is more than just a tool; it’s our answer to these challenges, and we believe it can be the answer for countless developers out there. Dive into the video to see East in action and understand how it can transform your NCS/Zephyr application development journey.
