Professional Articles

In the second of a two-part article, we continue our look at DO-178C, and the efforts behind compliance at every stage.

As was discussed in our previous article (‘Making Do with safety Standards’, Aerospace Innovations Q3 October) DO-178C was introduced to address several deficiencies and ambiguities in DO-178B. The revision primarily sought to enhance clarity, reflect modern software engineering practices, and provide better guidance on using advanced technologies without increasing the…

In the first of a two-part article, we look at the evolution of DO-178C and its influence on safety critical software

In 2023, Patrica Lustiq and Gill Ringland proposed the concept of Fractured Backbones. A backbone is an agreed set of rules which are shared and support the way that things work.

As our towns and cities get busier, existing transport networks are becoming more congested. We’ve all seen ambulances struggling to get through gridlocked streets, or being late for appointments as a result of traffic. This is why those responsible for urban mobility are looking for smarter ways of moving people and goods around, particularly in situations where every second counts.

Die Anforderungen an das Software-Defined Vehicle sind vielfältig. Eine technische Basis eint die Anforderungen jedoch: ein modernes RTOS mit integriertem Hypervisor, in dem sich alle relevanten Komponenten abbilden, sicher miteinander vernetzen und kompatibel betreiben lassen.

How embedded systems can benefit from immutable Linux in a container environment.

Immutable Linux is a concept where a base Linux system exists in read-only form and cannot be modified or deleted. The core of the idea is that a base Linux exists with immutable system files and directories and functions, or sub-areas are modularized by being moved out into containers. Each change made is – where it is at all possible – only temporarily and/or surely separated.

Hybride System-on-Chips integrieren zunehmend heterogene Prozessoren. Entwickler sehen sie jedoch als eine Komponente an, die sie möglichst integriert entwickeln wollen. Ein homogenes RTOS- und Hypervisor-Ökosystem für sowohl MPU- als auch MMU-gestützte Prozessoren bietet den entscheidenden Komfortgewinn.

Etienne Butery, CEO von Sysgo: »Das für ein eingebettetes System erforderliche Sicherheitsniveau hängt in hohem Maße von der gesamten Sicherheitsarchitektur ab.«

Separationskerne bieten eine höhere Sicherheit als die Trennung per Container. Mit Containerisierung lässt sich nur eine limitierte Isolierung erzielen, denn sie ist normalerweise nicht dafür vorgesehen, bösartigen Code an der Ausweitung von Privilegien zu hindern

The certification of the functional safety of a system is complex. All the manufacturers involved have to contribute to comply with standards - from the hardware with its BSPs and drivers, through the hypervisor and operating system, to the application code of the OEM and third-party supplier. The operating system, which is optimized specifically for the hardware, and the hypervisor used in mixed-critical systems have a key function here - lying between the hardware and the application. If this…

Information security is one of the most important topics of our time. One thing is certain: There will always be attackers who try to exploit gaps in software to abuse it. We are currently experiencing a rapid increase in the number of cyberattacks. Malicious actors – generally professionalized criminals or state attackers – are out to obtain confidential information, gain access to systems in order to control them, or damage them to such an extent that they are no longer operational.

Hybrid system-on-chips increasingly integrate heterogeneous processors. However, developers see them as one component that they want to develop as integrated as possible. A homogeneous RTOS and hypervisor ecosystem for both MPU- and MMU-supported processors provides the critical convenience gain.

When developing embedded systems that are to be real-time capable, one of the first and most important questions is whether the applications should run under a real-time operating system (RTOS) or whether a bare-metal solution should be developed. Bare-metal programming is generally understood to mean that an application is written directly on the hardware without using an external programming interface, i.e. an operating system. Applications access here directly hardware registers of…

While the EN standards 50128, 50129, 50126 and most recently EN 50657 have a strong focus on safety certification of COTS-based systems in the railway industry, they only partly deal with security issues. However, security is becoming more and more important, as closed systems are giving way to networked environments with wired and wireless connectivity. Safety-related systems in trains and signalling need to be protected from cyber threats in order to guarantee both integrity and availability.…

Development of certifiable systems and software for European Space Applications requires strict adherence to the ECSS standards. ECSS - the European Cooperation for Space Standardization - is a cooperation of the European Space Agency (ESA), national space agencies and the European Industry Association Eurospace with the aim of developing and maintaining coherent, commercially oriented and user-friendly standards for space applications. The main intention is to improve the performance and…

Linux makes valuable contributions as a component of medical devices. Due to a large user base, security gaps are quickly detected and thus also closed. Of course, it also plays a role at this point that a professional team takes care of the maintenance of a Linux integration in medical devices and that the system is also regularly maintained. An optimal combination of a core development team and the use of open source can bring great advances in medical technology. The biggest advantage of…