Embedded Linux and RTOS platforms, designed, secured and supported.
Firmware, hardware and complete products, from ESP32-class microcontrollers running FreeRTOS to full Yocto Linux systems. Already have a product in the field? We take on existing builds, BSPs and security updates too.
Yocto Project Participant · Silicon Labs Design Partner · Deployed in hundreds of thousands of UK homes
Yocto Linux platforms
New platforms, upgrades of existing builds and ongoing maintenance, with long-term support.
Board support packages
Linux brought up on your own hardware: bootloader, kernel, device tree and drivers.
Product security and CRA readiness
Security hardening, secure updates and vulnerability management for the Cyber Resilience Act.
Firmware and RTOS development
FreeRTOS and bare-metal firmware for smaller microcontrollers, including ESP32 designs, for products where Linux is more than you need.
Our Approach
How we work
We work as part of your team, not alongside it. We document as we go and hand over everything: designs, build systems and the reasoning behind the decisions. When the project ends, you can maintain and evolve the product without us. Several of our clients have been with us for over a decade by choice, not dependency.
Our partnership delivers:
End-to-end product development from concept to manufacturing
Secure embedded Linux platforms built for the future
Hardware design that brings ideas to life
Clear documentation and knowledge sharing
Long-term support that builds your capabilities
Hear it from Joe
Official Yocto Project Participant & Consultant
We architect, build and maintain production-grade Yocto-based Linux platforms. From first bootloader to secure OTA fleet update, we deliver the board-support package, the distro and the decade-long maintenance plan.
Silicon Labs Partner Network member
Rufilla is a member of the Silicon Labs Partner Network. We design and build firmware for the EFR32 wireless family, Zigbee, Thread, Matter and Bluetooth LE included, and have taken Silicon Labs based products from prototype to volume manufacture.
Smart energy
Smart energy, at scale
The Octopus Home Mini was designed and built by Rufilla: system design, hardware and firmware. It is deployed in hundreds of thousands of UK homes, and we still support it today.
Smart meter integration
Home energy management systems
IoT-enabled energy monitoring
Secure energy data platforms
Featured Projects
Innovation in Action
Apollo X-Ray Detection System
Scanning time cut from 11 hours to 30 minutes
Saturn Platform
Development time cut from years to weeks
Symmetry Camera System
5,000 frames per second image capture
Home Mini
Deployed to hundreds of thousands of homes UK-wide
Octo Secure (DESNZ Project)
Works without internet connectivity, proven in a 250-user trial
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Rufilla and would have no hesitation in recommending them.
Joe and his team have always been on hand and have reliably responded rapidly and flexibly where necessary despite our development priorities changing from time to time, communicating effectively throughout. Together, we have built a comprehensive build process and system architecture which underpins our products despite our initial lack of expertise in the technologies we chose to use for the developments.
Robin Mugridge
Systems Software Group Leader
A perfect partner for our project.
We approached Rufilla to develop a remote alarm system for our acute care hospital beds to alert staff when patients are preparing to get out of the bed.
The project required system design, multi-source component specification, procurement, assembly and testing. Rufilla worked through the project with quiet professionalism and delivered on time and at manageable cost.
Chris Stacey
Managing Director
Great communications, skills and handover contributed to a very satisfactory result for us.
We called Rufilla for specialist help with a Yocto project. Not having dealt with them previously, we were not sure how this would work out.
Joe’s team were immediately on the case and provided solutions beyond our expectations.
Glenn Wilkinson
Senior Engineer
Insights & Innovation
Introducing Rufilla Labs: things we’re building in the open
Today we're opening the doors on something we've been quietly working on: Rufilla Labs, a new home for all of our open-source work.At Rufilla we are absolutely obsessed with open source. Every product we build stands on it: Linux, Zephyr, Yocto, KiCad, and countless...
Rufilla is now an official Silicon Labs Design Partner
Some news we're genuinely thrilled to share: Rufilla is now an official Silicon Labs Design Partner, joining Silicon Labs' network of pre-qualified design services companies.In truth, this formalises something that has been the case for years. But it's lovely to make...
The MLForge Proof of Concept
In embedded development, the gap between a machine learning idea and a deployable device is still wider than it should be. You train a model on a laptop. It hits 95% accuracy on your test set. Then you try to run it on the target microcontroller and discover it needs...