Sphere and RTOS

Azure Sphere and Azure RTOS (real-time OS) deliver embedded OSs and supporting technology for microcontroller units (MCUs). MCUs are small, self-contained computers housed on a single integrated circuit. They are often found in electronic devices such as household appliances, and in sensors and controllers used on manufacturing assembly lines, power plants, automobiles, and airplanes.

Sphere 

Azure Sphere is an end-to-end Microsoft solution for interconnecting MCUs, the software that drives MCUs, and security mechanisms for communicating with them. Customers who build or work with networked custom devices containing MCUs could benefit from the security, connectivity, and standardization that Sphere may deliver.

Sphere consists of four components:

A Microsoft-specified MCU hardware architecture that includes a security subsystem with a certificate-based hardware root of trust enables secure communication, and in addition, code deployment and internal firewalls to limit the damage from compromised individual MCU elements.