As embedded systems grow in complexity, embedded development is no longer just about writing software/firmware, it’s about orchestrating hardware-software ecosystems. Hardware-software interdependence and system complexity can actually slow down product adoption and delay time to revenue, hence, there is a real need for the unified path from discovery to development to deployment.

The AMD Embedded Development Framework (EDF) is designed to simplify this journey by offering a modular, scalable, and open-source system-level development environment that streamlines and accelerates the path to deployment.What is AMD Embedded Development Framework?

EDF is not just a toolkit, it’s acomplete methodology that provides a fast path to develop and distribute embedded software components. EDF offers:

• Software Development Kit (SDK): Open-source build tools for generating robust, industry-standard Linux® images.
• Out-of-the-Box Experience: Scalable, prebuilt images for evaluation boards, enabling quick bring-up and exploration.
• Complete Embedded Software Stack: Includes tool chains, boot firmware, EDF Linux image, example designs, and more to reduce the development burden.

Let’s explore the three foundational pillars that make the AMD Embedded Development Framework a game-changer for embedded developers. 

Open Source 

EDF is built on a commitment toopen-source principles, enabling developers to build, customize, and scale embedded systems with confidence. It also takes the developer’s focus away from vendor dependencies and lock-in periods that can slow them down.

Powered by the industry-standard Yocto Project™

EDF leverages the Yocto Project, a widely adopted, open-source framework for building custom embedded Linux OS.Yocto Project isn’t a Linux distribution, it’s a build system that lets you tailor your operating system to your hardware, use case, and performance needs. It offers various libraries, templates, tools, and methods for easier integration and maintains them periodically. 

With support for multiple architectures, and reproducible builds, EDF ensures:

• Seamless customization of your OS tailored to specific needs 
• Vendor-neutral tools for long-term flexibility
• Easier integration and handoff to third-party OS vendors
• Full ecosystem support with long-term maintainability

And because it’s an open-source ecosystem, you benefit from a thriving community, rapid bug fixes, feature enhancements, faster innovation, and transparent development.

A Full Stack Solution 

EDF isa complete software stack that bridges the gap between hardware and software development. From prebuilt Linux disk image and boot firmware to trusted environments, RTOS, and reference designs and flows, EDF provides everything needed to develop and deploy embedded systems.

• AMD EDF Linux and Platform BSPs for immediate full-board enablement 
• Feature rich, ready-to-run prebuilt images for smoother out-of-the-box experience 
• Boot firmware for reliable system start-up 
• Modular reference example designs for scalable deployment
• Support for advanced boot flows and multi-domain architectures

Whether you're building a minimal system or a complex multi-domain architecture, it provides the tools to manage hardware-software interdependencies effectively and also supports both single-stage and multi-stage boot flows, ensuring compatibility across different AMD and partners’ embedded software development solutions.

This software stack ensures developers can start from a known-good baseline and modify and extend their embedded solution to meet production requirements.

Accelerated Development 

EDF is designed toreduce development cycles andaccelerate time to market with prebuilt images, automated flows, and different design entry points for different persona that help teams move from development to deployment faster. This also allows teams to focus on application development and system integration.

Different Design Entry Points

• Discover
  • Out-of-Box Evaluation – Flash and boot using prebuilt images and run out-of-box to explore working silicon.
• Development
  • Software Development – Write and deploy software using SDKs, containers, or package feeds targeting AMD adaptive SoCs. 
  • Custom Hardware Development – Use AMD Vivado™/Vitis™ tool flows and Configurable Example Designs (CEDs) to integrate PL payloads.
  • OS Integration & Development – Build and customize EDF Linux OS with Yocto Project.
• Deployment
  • Flexible Deployment: Deploy on the targeted AMD adaptive SoC with package feeds, containers, OTA updates, and more. 

EDF minimizes setup time, reduces integration overhead, and accelerates time to market, so you can focus on innovation, not infrastructure. 

Ready to Build?

Whether you're evaluating an AMD adaptive SoC, developing a custom platform, or deploying at scale, the AMD Embedded Development Framework (EDF) gives you one framework, one experience, and one fast path to deployment. 

Ninad Karyekar