littlekernel/lk

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_releases

Adoption not part of the score

3667 stars · 766 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

LK (Little Kernel) is a small SMP-aware embedded kernel written in C, portable to many 32- and 64-bit CPU architectures including ARM, RISC-V, x86, MIPS, and 68000. It features a fully re-entrant preemptive multithreaded kernel and is widely used in embedded projects, notably as the bootloader for many Android phones.

Use cases

• build a custom RTOS for a microcontroller
• write an embedded bootloader for ARM or RISC-V hardware
• run a small preemptive multithreaded kernel on bare metal
• port a lightweight kernel to a new 32-bit or 64-bit architecture
• develop firmware for Cortex-M or Cortex-A cores
• use a minimal kernel as a base for an Android device bootloader

When to choose

• you need a small, portable, SMP-capable embedded kernel with permissive MIT licensing
• you are targeting ARM, RISC-V, x86, MIPS, or 68000 embedded platforms
• you want a proven codebase used in production bootloaders

When to avoid

• you need a full POSIX-compliant OS with rich userspace
• you want a Linux-based system with drivers and package ecosystems
• you need hard real-time guarantees certified for safety-critical use

Facets

library · maturity active

embedded concurrency embedded-systems operating-systems hardware embedded c rtos kernel bootloader microcontroller smp bare-metal operating-system arm riscv x86

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markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="littlekernel/lk")