Certification is free for SOM partners. There are no enrollment fees, no functional-testing fees, and no royalties on certified products. Directory listing and Arduino co-marketing are included. Extended engineering support is available as an optional paid tier on request, for partners who want expedite review or deeper integration assistance.

Certification is self-service: you run the Arduino Functional Test Suite against your declared capabilities and submit a signed test report at Stage 3. Testing covers OS/Docker, the MCU bridge (Extended tier), camera (MIPI-CSI), audio, and AI/NPU models where declared. Arduino reviews the report and issues written pass/fail results per declared capability, and reserves the right to audit-sample submitted reports.

An App Release is a complete, frozen snapshot of an Arduino application – a single, immutable .tar.gz that bundles everything needed to install and run the app on any compatible certified device:

• Compiled sketch and manifest, plus all dependencies (Docker Compose, Python environment)
• AI models frozen at build time for reproducibility
• Release notes packaged in, with rollback to any earlier version

It installs via the Arduino App CLI, which checks device compatibility automatically and runs each app isolated in its own container.

Each badge is valid for 24 months. Re-certification is triggered only by a major change: a kernel major-version upgrade affecting declared drivers, a change of SoC family or stepping, upstream driver changes for a declared peripheral, or moving from Core to Extended. Minor OS updates, App CLI updates, and cosmetic hardware revisions do not trigger re-certification.

The partner provides all drivers, kernel configuration, and Device Tree for the declared peripherals, and all kernel drivers must be upstream. Arduino does not provide custom Linux BSPs. Your board must match or exceed the minimum hardware spec of its target platform (UNO Q or VENTUNO Q) and align to Qualcomm Linux (QLI 2.1).

Self-certification support is free and includes guidance during enrollment and architecture review, access to the Functional Test Suite and reference apps, and written feedback at each gate. The partner is responsible for supporting its own end-customers post-certification – troubleshooting, warranty, and field-issue resolution for its SOMs. Arduino is not a customer-support channel for partner devices.

Core is the minimum viable platform for App Lab compatibility: an MPU running Linux with GPU/NPU drivers, Docker, the App CLI and Arduino Router, Qualcomm native libraries, GPIO, and TCP/IP connectivity.

Extended adds production-grade peripheral support: a real-time MCU (Zephyr + Arduino Core) over an MCU–MPU interface, Wi-Fi + Bluetooth, camera, audio in/out, display, and CAN-FD. You declare the tier that fits your product, and certification tests only what you declare.

Fill out the form below to express your interest, and the Works with Arduino team will contact you as soon as possible. Early submission is recommended: Arduino can provide compatibility feedback before you commit to hardware investment.

Certified SOMs let your customers scale to production while preserving their software investment — compatible Arduino Apps port across with zero code changes, backed by each partner's industrial-grade hardware, software, and long-term lifecycle support. Current collaborations include:

SECO — SOM-SMARC-Dragonwing-IQ8: a standards-based SMARC® Rel. 2.1.1 module on the Dragonwing™ IQ8,with SECO's Clea OS and Application Hub for secure OTA updates and fleet-scale device management.

Toradex — Aquila IQ8: a module in Toradex's Aquila family on the Dragonwing™ IQ8, delivered with the Torizon platform and Toradex's lifecycle support for long-lived industrial products.