OSS + ELC EU 2026

Zephyr makes it easy to build the same code for multiple board targets. native_sim lets you run (parts of) your zephyr application and associated tests as a regular Linux process, allowing reproducible runs, easy debugging and CI integration.

In this talk, I will share what we learned structuring, testing, and debugging several real-world Zephyr applications:

* The native_sim execution model: How time is handled
* How to emulate hardware: Fake drivers, virtual bluetooth controllers, networking, PTY UART, emulators
* Examples of what can be built using these primitives:
* Connecting to the Android Emulator over BLE
* Writing Zephyr tests using the Cucumber framework
* ...
* Tooling around native_sim: twister, sanitizers, GDB, code coverage
* Integrating external binaries into twister through the pytest harness
* Designing for testability: Separating business logic from hardware-dependent software units
* When native_sim is not enough: Running tests in qemu or on real hardware

The goal of this talk is to provide a broad overview about what is possible thanks to native_sim, hopefully inspiring new ideas on how to test code without ever touching hardware.