Build products that
just work with Orbit OS.
A certification program for manufacturers and OEMs building dedicated embedded products on Orbit OS.
What is the Orbit OS Hardware Certification Program?
The Orbit OS Hardware Certification Program allows hardware manufacturers to turn their own boards into first-class, fully integrated Orbit OS products.
Certification means that Gravity RT has validated the device end-to-end — including hardware access, the board profile, OTA updates, and the platform trust chain.
The result is hardware that is officially recognized by Orbit OS and ready to participate in the wider ecosystem.
Community hardware vs. certified hardware
Orbit OS supports community hardware so developers can experiment, develop applications, and build projects on readily available boards. Certification serves a different purpose: it is designed for manufacturers creating dedicated products.
Generic supported hardware
Boards such as Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Banana Pi, Arduino UNO Q, and other community-supported platforms provide a convenient way to run Orbit OS and develop applications using standard platform APIs. They are community-supported hardware, not Orbit OS certified products.
Dedicated manufacturer hardware
A manufacturer-designed board, purpose-built for a specific application, is validated, associated with a signed board profile, and integrated with Gravity RT as a dedicated Orbit OS product platform.
What certification means
Certification validates the complete relationship between the physical device and the Orbit OS platform.
Hardware Access
GPIO, PWM, I²C, UART, cameras, and other supported hardware interfaces are mapped and validated against the actual board.
Signed Board Profile
The device is associated with an approved and signed board profile describing its supported hardware capabilities.
Trust Chain
The device's identity and trust relationship with the Orbit OS platform are validated as part of certification.
OTA Updates
The hardware is validated for supported Orbit OS update mechanisms, allowing the product to evolve after shipment.
What you get
Ecosystem Visibility
Your device can be listed as Orbit OS Certified and surfaced in the Orbit ecosystem and Store, where users can identify certified hardware.
"Works with Orbit OS" Badge
Use the certification mark on your product pages, documentation, packaging, and other product materials.
Engineering Support
Get direct access to board bring-up tooling and the Gravity RT team throughout the integration process.
Apps That Just Work
Orbit OS applications can run across certified hardware using the same platform APIs and services, without requiring developers to create board-specific integrations for every device.
Orbit Store Integration
Certified products can participate in application distribution through the Orbit Store.
One platform. Hardware-specific products.
Certification allows manufacturers to create hardware specifically for their products while developers continue to build against common Orbit OS APIs and services.
The certified hardware defines the product-specific capabilities that can be exposed to applications through Orbit OS — from dedicated I/O and sensors to RS-485, RTCs, networking, cellular connectivity, or other product-specific hardware.
An application can therefore remain portable across certified hardware while still taking advantage of capabilities exposed by a particular product.
Developers do not need to build a completely different application for every board. Orbit OS provides the common platform; certified hardware provides the product-specific capabilities.
Ship a turnkey product
Certification is particularly powerful when the hardware is designed around a specific application.
Example: a dedicated irrigation controller
A manufacturer could build a dedicated irrigation controller with valve outputs, soil-moisture inputs, pressure sensors, a real-time clock, RS-485, networking, and other product-specific hardware.
While a standard Raspberry Pi provides the computing platform, a professional irrigation product may require a purpose-built hardware design with dedicated I/O, interfaces, electrical protection, timing hardware, and other capabilities that are not part of a standard Raspberry Pi board.
Orbit OS and Gravity RT allow the manufacturer to turn that dedicated hardware into a complete, supported product:
- Orbit OS and Gravity RT provide the software platform.
- The signed board profile defines the approved hardware configuration and its capabilities.
- The manufacturer's application can ship pre-installed as the product's default application.
- The application can discover and use the capabilities exposed by the certified hardware.
- The product can restrict the default application from being removed while still allowing supported application updates through the Orbit Store.
- The manufacturer can continue shipping new application versions and features after the product reaches customers.
- The same platform can provide the foundations for connectivity, remote management, security, and future product capabilities.
The result is not simply a generic computing board with an application installed.
It is a dedicated commercial product, built around purpose-designed hardware and powered by Orbit OS.
The manufacturer controls the product-specific hardware and application, while Orbit provides the underlying platform that makes the product secure, deployable, updateable, and part of a larger ecosystem.
This means a manufacturer can build a product for a specific market without having to build and maintain an entire embedded software platform from scratch — while retaining the ability to evolve the product long after it has reached customers.
How It Works
Board Support
Share your board's hardware map with Gravity RT — GPIO, PWM, I²C, UART, camera interfaces, storage, networking, and other relevant capabilities.
Validation
We run the compatibility suite against your hardware, validating hardware access, OTA updates, the signed board profile, and the trust chain.
Certification
Once validation is complete, the board profile is signed and the device is officially listed as Orbit OS Certified.
Build your next product with Orbit OS
Building a dedicated embedded product and want to make it part of the Orbit OS ecosystem?
Tell us about your hardware and product. We'll work with you through the board integration, validation, and certification process.
Apply for Certification