Wind River platforms for safety critical devices

BANGALORE, INDIA: Wind River has announced the immediate availability of two new software platforms for customers requiring safety certification.

The software platforms, called VxWorks 61508 Platform and VxWorks DO-178B Platform, allow customers to reduce development risk of safety certified systems by leveraging the portability of existing VxWorks 6 software components, development tools and partner ecosystem, while maintaining confidence in meeting critical business requirements for lower cost, faster time-to-market, higher quality and increased performance. 

The VxWorks 61508 and VxWorks DO-178B Platforms are based on the commercial-grade VxWorks 6.6 operating system and are specialized for stringent certification requirements of IEC 61508 and DO-178B found in the avionics, energy, industrial control, medical, process automation and transportation market segments.

 The platforms include full commercial versions of VxWorks 6.6 as an integral part of the development package, which provides access to a broad set of core features and hardware board support packages (BSPs) that can be adapted for use in certification projects. Both platforms include the award-winning Wind River Workbench development suite, an Eclipse-based collection of tools for debugging, code analysis and testing designed to accelerate time-to-market for developers building devices.

The optional Wind River Network Stacks for 61508 and for DO-178B use the same socket APIs as the standard Advanced Networking Technologies used for VxWorks and Wind River Linux, easing migration of code into certified networking environments.

“VxWorks has been in wide commercial use in embedded applications for more than two decades, throughout which we’ve consistently supported a broad set of certified systems, spanning a large set of vertical markets and systems,” said Marc Brown, vice president of VxWorks marketing at Wind River. “These VxWorks platforms build upon that market leadership, particularly for those customers who want to leverage safety certification as a competitive differentiator.”

Additional key features and benefits of VxWorks 61508 Platform and VxWorks DO-178B Platform include:

* Utilization of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) operating system, VxWorks 6.6, enables re-use of legacy software, reducing time-to-market and cost;

* VxWorks modular components enable hardware consolidation, reducing SWaP (Space, Weight and Power) and bill of materials costs, and increasing performance;

* Proven COTS certification software components and tools enable efficient device delivery, reducing time-to-market, lowering cost, increasing device quality, and meeting strict market requirements;

* Support of a rich partner ecosystem complements safety critical projects with advanced tools, file systems, Ada language support, Java language support and graphics subsystems.

Wind River provides complementary certification services with direct relationships to certification authorities. In addition, Wind River provides a safety service practice which is fully equipped to provide professional certification services at any level, including certified BSPs, middleware and application software.