Drako DriveOS™

Brings hard real-time to Linux, maximizing development efficiency & performance

DriveOS is a unified software system that can run all automotive sub-systems side-by-side on modern multi-core processors, on a separation-kernel architecture that isolates mixed-criticality workloads.

The platform combines HyperResponse™ vehicle performance with the flexibility of a standard OS — allowing manufacturers to seamlessly port existing applications without rewriting code.

DriveOS detects faults and dynamically recovers sub-systems – providing superior system safety and continuous operation, with comprehensive over-the-air serviceability.

DriveOS - Linux RTOS, no kernel modifications

What sets Drako DriveOS apart?

Drako DriveOS is a true unified drive operating system, serving as a single software platform to directly manage and control all the resources — including compute, memory, I/O, and timing — across all vehicle domains.

In contrast with middleware approaches built on legacy systems, DriveOS’ operating system architecture was built from the ground up to run safety critical and non critical workloads together with full isolation.

Sub-systems can be updated independently, so each sub-system can be patched or upgraded without disturbing the others. Further, a safety incident in one domain doesn’t compromise the rest of the system.

DriveOS SymbiOSis technology brings hard real-time performance to both Linux and native RTOS applications.

This ensures all applications run safely side-by-side on a single chip, enabling mixed-criticality sub-systems (e.g. Infotainment, Powertrain, ADAS…) to run in parallel on the same chip using hardware-enforced isolation.

The platform delivers nanosecond-level, deterministic responsiveness — on-chip communication is three orders of magnitude faster than multi-ECU communication.

It creates isolated sub-systems using a new virtualization approach designed for safety-critical mixed-criticality workloads, so that if a fault occurs in one domain, the rest of the system continues to execute with full safety & performance.

The Technologies that Make DriveOS Possible

DriveOS is fully validated in Drako Motors’ production supercars, where it runs core vehicle systems—including powertrain and digital cockpit—on a single multi-core processor.

The software platform has proven its nanosecond response and reliability in one of the world’s most demanding automotive environments — these luxury electric supercars push the limits of performance, control, and software integration.

OneECU™ Architecture: One ECU for all functions (control systems, digital cockpit, ADAS), dramatically reducing hardware costs, complexity, and mass.

There is only one software image in the entire vehicle, eliminating the need for hardware & software updates for each ECU.

This centralized approach ensures atomic updates for the entire vehicle, eliminating version conflicts between distributed subsystems and significantly reducing the system-level validation and regression-testing burden.

SymbiOSis™ unifies general purpose and hard real-time OS workloads in one platform — delivering the flexibility of Linux with the reliability and determinism of a dedicated RTOS on a single multicore processor with strict isolation between workloads.

Drako Dragon

DriveOS fully validated on Drako Motors luxury supercars

Separation kernel architecture: 5,000x performance advantage

Drako’s separation kernel consolidates all vehicle functions onto a single multicore processor with mathematically verified isolation, achieving nanosecond-level task communication — three orders of magnitude faster than traditional multi-ECU architectures connected over TSN automotive Ethernet.

This speed advantage delivers the ultra-fast, deterministic responsiveness needed for advanced vehicle dynamics, high-speed sensor fusion, and highly responsive ADAS, while maintaining formally provable guarantees that faults or security breaches in one domain cannot affect others.

Our platform architecture also enables smooth application migration, allowing manufacturers to reuse existing software with minimal change, accelerating deployment across a wide range of vehicle platforms.

The separation kernel runs directly on hardware with deterministic, statically partitioned scheduling, providing spatial partitioning with dedicated CPU cores and memory, plus temporal partitioning with fixed timing and near-zero virtualization overhead.

This design keeps safety critical and non critical workloads strictly isolated while still sharing the same multicore processor. As a result, DriveOS brings hard real-time performance to Linux to create a general-purpose operating system with nanosecond-level determinism across mixed-criticality workloads.

In contrast, traditional Type 1 hypervisors were designed for server virtualization, not vehicle control; they schedule virtual machines using best-effort algorithms that introduce unpredictable timing variations and jitter. That jitter makes it difficult to guarantee tight control-loop deadlines, especially when multiple ECUs and networks are involved.

This separation kernel architecture enables DriveOS’ SymbiOSis technology, mixing general-purpose and hard real-time workloads on the same platform, while also making the general-purpose operating systems real-time for the first time.

DriveOS drive operating system separation kernel

HyperSafety™ Defines New Safety Standard

Drako’s HyperSafety™ defines a new multi-layer, system-level standard for automotive safety performance, delivering predictable real-time behavior under all operating conditions.

When timing is unpredictable, systems become unsafe. While manufacturers can complete certification processes and documentation, certification such as ISO 26262 is primarily procedural rather than proof that a system delivers predictable real-time performance under all operating conditions.

DriveOS moves beyond procedure to deliver:

Ultra-safe driving responsiveness
Continuous operation
Cyber-secure connectivity

Existing hypervisors fundamentally cannot achieve what DriveOS delivers. Hypervisors cannot improve the timing or predictability of operating systems running inside them -- a hypervisor running Linux as a guest OS cannot make that Linux instance real-time.

In contrast, with DriveOS:

The single-ECU architecture provides nanosecond-level control processing for ultra-safe driving responsiveness. Specifically, the DriveOS control and networking backbone delivers four times faster communication compared with multi-ECU systems connected via automotive Ethernet.
Continuous operation is ensured even if multiple components fail, because the architecture deploys strict hardware isolation as well as hardware and software redundancy.
Cyber-secure connectivity is achieved through a compact code footprint, secure hardware partitioning, and on-chip memory communication between virtual ECUs, which dramatically reduce attack surfaces and streamline safety validation and OTA updates.

Drako DriveOS SymbiOSis™ Unleashes Super Linux

– Hard real-time performance for general-purpose operating systems

– Secure, mixed-criticality workloads on same multicore processor

– Strict performance isolation via hardware-enforced spatial partitioning (cores/memory) with formal proof, eliminating resource contention

– Jitter-free hard real-time determinism through hardware-enforced temporal partitioning (scheduling) with mathematical verification

– Simplified security certifications – minimal codebase, formal verification possible

– Provably secure against cyber threats via mathematically verified, hardware-enforced isolation with zero shared state between partitions

DriveOS - Hard real-time Linux drive operating system