The certification covers both the Safety Base profile and the Security profile. The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS is the first software component of any type to be certified conformant to edition 3.0, according to Green Hills.
Version 3.0 of the FACE Technical Standard builds on version 2.1.1, offering a major improvement in that it addresses the use of multicore processors in safety-critical applications.
The technical standard now requires any Operating System Segment (OSS) that claims support for multicore partitions to meet ARINC-653 Part 1 Supplement 4, including the requirement for multicore operation as defined in Section 2: “Multiple processes within a partition scheduled to execute concurrently on different processor cores.” In ARINC-653, each application is called a partition and has its own memory space.
Asymmetric Multi-Processing (AMP), the simplest software architecture in a multicore-based system, is not sufficient to meet the requirements of Supplement 4. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is the only certified FACE-compliant operating system to meet the requirements of ARINC-653 Supplement 4, and it does so with the availability of Bound Multi-Processing (BMP) in addition to AMP and Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP), says Green Hills.
By definition, BMP is an enhanced and restricted form of SMP that can statically bind an application’s ARINC-653 processes (i.e., tasks) to a specific set of cores, allowing the system architect to more tightly control the concurrent operation of multiple cores.
INTEGRITY-178 tuMP allows the system developers to bind ARINC-653 processes within an application to a core using an API or using the system configuration file. In addition, INTEGRITY-178 tuMP meets the ARINC-653 Part 2 Supplement 3 requirements for SMP operation.
“The ability to execute an application across a user allocated core or group of cores in a bounded and time-partitioned manner is necessary for achieving maximum performance and minimum size, weight, and power for Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA),” said Dan O'Dowd, founder and chief executive officer of Green Hills Software. “Our INTEGRITY-178 tuMP multicore RTOS was designed specifically to provide full multiprocessing capability while still providing the mechanisms to ensure true modularity of the system and the deterministic operation needed to meet the highest design assurance level, DO-178C level A.”
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