Simplifying the Development of Real-time Industrial Edge Systems
Edge XRT is the first edge software platform designed specifically for time-critical and resource-constrained embedded Industrial OT (Operational Technology) and IoT (Internet of Things) systems. It provides a powerful edge software framework that supports key capabilities such as Southbound OT connectivity, edge data processing and Northbound IT/Cloud connectivity. Edge XRT delivers these capabilities while also supporting the following key non-functional properties:
- Small memory footprint (e.g. less than 100 KB)
- Ultra-low latency data processing (e.g. less than 100 microseconds)
- Predictable and deterministic real-time execution
- Easily ported legacy hardware and/or operating systems

Edge XRT is targeted at high-performance edge applications such as industrial control, high-frequency signal processing and real-time analytics in different vertical markets including factory automation, oil and gas, utilities, autonomous systems and smart energy. It also enables integration between the real-time industrial edge applications and higher-level SCADA, MES and IT/Cloud systems .

Due to its small memory footprint XRT is perfectly suited for resource constrained embedded applications such as those enabled by the next generation of connected microcontrollers, for example Microsoft’s Azure Sphere devices.
Edge XRT is a complementary commercially-licensed extension of the Linux Foundation’s EdgeX Foundry platform. It enables the EdgeX ecosystem and commercial derivatives such as IOTech’s Edge Xpert to support the full spectrum of secure hard and soft real-time Edge Computing requirements.
Edge XRT 2.0 Release

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Edge XRT Product Brochures

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Edge XRT and Microsoft Azure Sphere

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Edge XRT Benefits
- Simplified Real-time Development
- Simplifies development for connected real-time edge applications and provides application portability, improved supportability, delivering faster time-to-market and ease of product evolution
- Easy Integration
- Can be easily integrated into 3rd party edge application stacks via standard MQTT API or alternatively co-located with the same address as the application for maximum performance
- Reusable Infrastructure
- Provides productized reusable real-time infrastructure (e.g. real-time thread prioritization and scheduling) allowing users to focus on value-add applications
- Optimized Performance
- Written in C for portability, small footprint and low latency performance
- Complete Deployment Flexibility
- Can be deployed as a native executable application or containerized (e.g. docker) and/or into a virtualized environment
- Runs on Any Device
- A platform-independent solution that runs on any silicon, operating system (with POSIX-like support) and hardware
- Application Portability
- Standard application framework and reusable components increases application portability and re-use across different use cases
- Standard Connectivity
- Provides extensive pluggable “out-of-the-box” for many of the most common Southbound OT (e.g. Modbus, OPC UA, BACnet etc.) and Northbound IT (e.g. Multi-Cloud, MQTT, REST) communication technologies
- Supports Industry Standard
- Compatible with emerging industry standards such as IEC6113 and 61499
Edge XRT Key Features:
- Loosely-coupled microservices architecture deployed in a lightweight single address space microcontainer
- Real-Time Core processing engine allowing for the pluggable deployment of user components and analytics at run-time
- Implemented in the C programming language so is extremely lightweight, fast and portable
- Integration with multiple OT device endpoints including Modbus, BACnet, MQTT, OPC UA, OPC UA Pub/Sub, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, PROFINET, BLE, Zigbee and many more
- Integration with multiple IT/Cloud endpoints via MQTT and REST including AWS IoT Core, Google Cloud IoT and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub
- Runs on ANY hardware including microcontroller environments such as Microsoft’s Azure Sphere
- Simplifed integration with 3rd party edge applications via standard MQTT API
edge xrt real-time embedded low latency small footprint time-critical business-critical