DO-178C

Jennifer Deos, News, Press Release

DDC-I Completes Multicore DO-178C DAL-A Verification for Deos RTOS on ARM and PowerPC Architectures

Phoenix, AZ – September 19, 2023 – DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission- and safety-critical applications, today announced that it has completed multicore DO-178C verification to Design Assurance Level A (DAL A) for its Deos™ DO-178C safety-critical real-time operating system (RTOS) on multiple ARM and PowerPC processors. Deos now provides an off-the-shelf set of DAL-A artifacts for a broad range of ARM and PowerPC multicore processors, including the PowerPC e6500 core and the ARM-based Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC, NXP QorIQ, Layerscape, S32 (automotive), and iMX processor families. This is the second verified baseline of DDC-I’s multicore kernel technology to DO-178C DAL-A.  Verification for Intel’s I7 Tiger Lake and Texas Instruments’ Jacinto are planned for release in the next verified baseline.

“DDC-I has been at the forefront of DO-178C multicore technology development, standardization and verification, with an emphasis on satisfying the CAST-32A and AMC 20-193 objectives for safety-critical operation,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing at DDC-I. “Further, Deos takes a different approach to multicore processing versus other certifiable RTOSs by providing technology to reduce cross core interference rather than relying on draconian safety nets as the primary bounding mechanism. Our unique multicore features enable our customers to achieve the highest level of safety-critical operation in the gamut of avionics applications from highly deterministic FADECs and flight controls, to complex high throughput displays and mission computers.”

Deos is a safety-critical embedded RTOS that uses patented technology to deliver the highest possible CPU utilization on multi-core processors. First certified to DO-178 DAL A in 1998, Deos features hard real-time response, time and space partitioning, ARINC-653 and POSIX interfaces and is certified as conforming to the FACE® Technical Standard v3.1 for the Safety Extended and Safety Base Profiles. With an emphasis on safety-critical multicore applications, Deos scales well for all compute- and I/O intensive avionics applications such as those requiring data fusion, and other advanced control and sensor functionality.

DDC-I’s SafeMC™ technology extends Deos’ advanced capabilities to multiple cores, enabling developers of safety-critical systems to achieve best in class multicore performance without compromising safety-critical task response and guaranteed execution time. SafeMC employs a bound multiprocessing (BMP) architecture, safe scheduling, and cache partitioning to minimize cross-core contention and interference patterns that affect the performance, safety and certifiability of multi-core systems. The patented cache partitioning technology is unique to Deos and enables L2/L3 cache segregation at a per-application level. This feature bounds cache jitter to dramatically improve worse-case execution times. Then as a final line of defense against run-bound operation, customers can employ the safety nets of bandwidth restriction for resource over utilization, which protects against catastrophic error conditions. These features enable avionics system developers to address issues that could impact the integrity, safety, performance, and the burden associated with the certification of a multi-core airborne system.

About DDC-I, Inc.

DDC-I, Inc. is a global supplier of real-time operating systems, software development tools, custom software development services, and legacy software system modernization solutions, with a primary focus on mission- and safety-critical applications. DDC-I’s customer base is an impressive “who’s who” in the commercial, military, aerospace, and safety-critical industries. DDC-I offers safety critical real-time operating systems, compilers, integrated development environments and run-time systems for C, C++, and Ada application development. For more information regarding DDC-I products, contact DDC-I at 4545 E. Shea Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85028; phone (602) 275-7172; fax (602) 252-6054; e-mail sales@ddci.com or visit https://www.ddci.com/pr2311.

Jennifer Deos, News, Press Release

DDC-I and Vector Cohost March 30 Webinar on Automated Testing for DO-178C Safety-Critical Avionics Applications

Phoenix, AZ. March 30, 2022. DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission and safety-critical applications, and Vector, a specialist in the development and test of automotive electronics and software-based systems, will cohost a joint webinar on optimizing the development and testing of DO-178C safety-critical software. The complimentary one-hour webinar will be held on March 30, 2022, at 11:00 EST. For more information on the webinar, or to register, please visit https://vector-group.webex.com/vector-group/onstage/g.php?MTID=e50955022e5dd3cf01be09d95e112b489

The development and testing of safety-critical software often requires testing software in the target environment in all phases of development. VectorCAST enables automated testing of real-time applications directly in an embedded target or simulator environment. Integrating Deos with VectorCAST enables testing of critical software functions in the same operational environment as the deployed target. It also facilitates compliance with industry standards such as DO-178C/ED-12C.

During the webinar, Vector will demonstrate how you can use the VectorCAST test automation platform with Deos to create an efficient, fully integrated solution that optimizes software integrity while saving time and cost. The webinar will provide an overview of Deos features that simplify multicore application development, reuse, and verification to DO-178C/ED-12C. Then, utilizing a demo featuring Vector’s unit testing tools running on DDC-I’s PC-hosted Quick EMUlator (QEMU), the webinar will examine customized VectorCAST I/O facilities that support target communication; Change-Based Testing (CBT) features that enhance testing efficiency; automated generation of test reports and metrics; and the VectorCAST Tool Qualification Package for DO-178C/ED-12C

“This webinar is ideal for avionics developers who want to reduce safety-critical development, test, verification, and certification time by utilizing an automated test environment that is tightly integrated with the target RTOS and development tools,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing and product management at DDC-I. “The integration of our safety-critical RTOS and OpenArbor IDE with Vector’s test automation suite accelerates all aspects of development, test and certification for DO-178 safety-critical applications.”

VectorCAST is a dynamic software test solution that automates C/C++ and Ada unit and integration testing, which is necessary for validating safety- and mission-critical embedded systems. VectorCAST automates the creation of stubs and drivers as part of the creation of the test harness, normally a manual process, giving developers time to focus on building thorough, high-quality test cases. With VectorCAST, unit testing can be done natively or on a specific target or simulator. The VectorCAST Runtime Support Package (RSP) provides a full-featured integration that allows for download, execution and results capture using the built-in networking facilities of the Deos RTOS.

DDC-I’s Deos is a safety-critical time and space partitioned real-time operating system (RTOS). Verified to the guidance of DO-178C/ED-12C Design Assurance Level A (DAL A) for avionics applications, Deos supports ARINC 653 APEX, Rate Monotonic Scheduling (RMS), and is the first RTOS to receive the Future Airborne Capability Environment™ (FACE) Conformance Certificate for the FACE Technical Standard, Edition 3.1.  The certification covers the Safety Extended and Safety Base Profiles for the Operating System Segment (OSS).

SafeMC technology extends Deos’ advanced capabilities to multiple cores, enabling developers of safety-critical systems to achieve best in class multi-core performance without compromising safety-critical task response and guaranteed execution time. SafeMC employs a bound multiprocessing (BMP) extension of the symmetric multiprocessing architecture (SMP), safe scheduling, and cache partitioning to minimize cross-core contention and interference patterns that affect the performance, safety criticality and certifiability of multi-core systems. These features enable avionics systems developers to address issues that could impact the safety, performance and integrity of a software airborne system executing on Multi-Core Processors (MCP), as specified by the Certification Authorities Software Team (CAST) in its Position Paper CAST-32A for Multi-core Processors.

About Vector

Vector is the leading manufacturer of software tools and embedded components for the development of electronic systems and their networking with many different systems from CAN to Automotive Ethernet.

Vector has been a partner of automotive manufacturers and suppliers and related industries since 1988. Vector tools and services provide engineers with the decisive advantage to make a challenging and highly complex subject area as simple and manageable as possible. Vector employees work on electronic innovations for the automotive industry every day. Worldwide customers in the automotive, commercial vehicles, aerospace, transportation, and control technology industries rely on the solutions and products of the independent Vector Group for the development of technologies for future mobility.

Vector worldwide currently employs more than 3,000 people with sales of EUR 948 million in 2021. Vector is headquartered in Germany (Stuttgart) and has subsidiaries in Brazil, China, France, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Austria, Romania, Sweden, South Korea, Spain and the USA.

About DDC-I, Inc.

DDC-I, Inc. is a global supplier of real-time operating systems, software development tools, custom software development services, and legacy software system modernization solutions, with a primary focus on mission- and safety-critical applications. DDC-I’s customer base is an impressive “who’s who” in the commercial, military, aerospace, and safety-critical industries. DDC-I offers safety-critical real-time operating systems, compilers, integrated development environments and run-time systems for C, C++, and Ada application development. For more information regarding DDC-I products, contact DDC-I at 4545 E. Shea Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85028; phone (602) 275-7172; fax (602) 252-6054; e-mail sales@ddci.com or visit http://www.ddci.com/pr2203.

Jennifer Deos, News, Press Release, RTOS

DDC-I’s Deos Safety-Critical RTOS Available for North Atlantic Industries’ 68PPC2 Multicore Open VPX Single Board Computer

Integrated avionics platform couples bounded multicore response times with complete DO-178C/ED-12C DAL A verification for rapid development and deployment

 

Phoenix, AZ and Bohemia, NY – March 10, 2021. DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission- and safety-critical applications, and North Atlantic Industries, a leading provider of embedded systems for mil/aero applications, today announced the availability of DDC-I’s Deos™ safety-critical real-time operating system for NAI’s 68PPC2 T2080 PowerPC OpenVPX single-board computer. The integrated platform comes with complete DO-178C/ED-12C DAL A verification evidence for the Board Support Package, including all network and I/O drivers, greatly accelerating the development, deployment and certification of high-performance safety-critical applications for avionics systems.

DDC-I’s approach to building safety critical software mirrors North Atlantic’s approach to configuring boards, with an emphasis on modular, scalable portable DAL-A verification.  Deos utilizes a DAL A linking loader that allows OS binary components and their artifacts to travel separately.   NAI’s Configurable Open Systems Architecture™ (COSA®) utilizes highly modular, portable components that can be added or removed, and reapplied to other system configurations with maximum reuse of DAL-A artifacts. This shared commitment to modularity, portability and reuse enables avionics designers utilizing Deos and the COSA architecture to reconfigure their I/O systems with minimal impact on hardware, software and DO-178 recertification.

The 68PPC2 is a 3U OpenVPX™ NXP® T2080 PowerPC single-board computer that can be configured with up to two NAI smart I/O and communications function modules. Featuring an NXP QorlQ® T2080 Quad Core e6500 Processor running at 1.5 GHz, and consuming less then 25W, the 68PPC2 is ideally suited for rugged Mil-Aero applications that accelerate deployment of SWaP-optimized systems in air, land and sea applications. The 68PPC2 comes equipped with eight Mbytes of DDR3 SDRAM and 32 Gbytes of SATA II NAND Flash. It also features PCIe, USB, I2C, TTL, and RS-232 interfaces, as well as an optional SATA II for external access to up to 512 Gbytes of expansion memory.

“Advanced SafeMC™ multicore technology, together with reusable verification evidence, make Deos an ideal environment for developing, hosting, and certifying high-performance safety-critical avionics applications targeting the 68PPC2 and COSA architecture,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing and product management at DDC-I. “Deos SafeMC technology uniquely resolves the CAST-32A multicore objectives, enabling it to deliver unmatched performance and determinism for safety-critical applications running on NXP PowerPC multicore processors.”

“We are pleased to be working with DDC-I to offer our joint customers an integrated platform that combines our high-performance multicore capability with a best-in-class safety-critical RTOS,” added Lino Massafra, vice president of sales and marketing at NAI. “Developers requiring the highest level of design assurance now have a rugged, flexible, off-the-shelf solution combining high-performance multicore computing and configurable I/O in a compact, low-power package that accelerates deployment of safety-critical systems.”

Deos is a safety-critical embedded RTOS that employs patented cache partitioning, memory pools, and safe scheduling to deliver higher CPU utilization than any other certifiable safety-critical COTS RTOS on multi-core processors. First certified to DO-178 DAL A in 1998, Deos combines FACE conformance with DO-178C DAL A artifacts, providing a FACE Safety Base Profile that features hard real-time response, time and space partitioning, and both ARINC-653 and POSIX interfaces.

SafeMC technology extends Deos’ advanced capabilities to multiple cores, enabling developers of safety-critical systems to achieve best in class multi-core performance without compromising safety-critical task response and guaranteed execution time. SafeMC employs a bound multiprocessing (BMP) extension of the symmetric multiprocessing architecture (SMP), safe scheduling, and cache partitioning to minimize cross-core contention and interference patterns that affect the performance, safety criticality and certifiability of multi-core systems. These features enable avionics systems developers to address issues that could impact the safety, performance and integrity of a software airborne system executing on Multi-Core Processors (MCP), as specified by the Certification Authorities Software Team (CAST) in its Position Paper CAST-32A for Multi-core Processors.

 About DDC-I, Inc.

DDC-I, Inc. is a global supplier of real-time operating systems, software development tools, custom software development services, and legacy software system modernization solutions, with a primary focus on mission- and safety-critical applications. DDC-I’s customer base is an impressive “who’s who” in the commercial, military, aerospace, and safety-critical industries. DDC-I offers safety-critical real-time operating systems, compilers, integrated development environments and run-time systems for C, C++, Ada, and JOVIAL application development. For more information regarding DDC-I products, contact DDC-I at 4545 E. Shea Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85028; phone (602) 275-7172; fax (602) 252-6054; e-mail sales@ddci.com or visit http://www.ddci.com/pr2101.

 About NAI

NAI is a leading independent supplier of embedded computing, Input/Output, communications, measurement, simulation, power and systems products for commercial, industrial and military applications built on a Configurable Open System Architecture (COSATM). COSA offers the greatest modularity, flexibility, adaptability and configurability in the industry that accelerates our customer’s time-to-mission.  COSA supports a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) that delivers the best of both worlds: custom solutions from COTS components with No NRE.  For over 50 years, companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have leveraged NAI’s capabilities to meet the demanding requirements of a wide range of I/O and communication-centric applications, and do so with uncompromising quality, efficiency and responsiveness. Information about NAI and its products can be found at www.naii.com.

Jennifer Deos, News, Press Release, RTOS

DDC-I’s Safety-Critical Deos Avionics RTOS First to Offer DAL-A DO-178C Certifiable Encryption

wolfCrypt brings secure, lightweight, encrypted FIPS 140-2-certified communications to DO-178 avionics applications running Deos

 

Phoenix, AZ and Edmonds, WA – September 21, 2020 – DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission- and safety-critical applications, and wolfSSL, a leading provider of TLS cryptography, today announced the availability of the wolfCrypt cryptography library and certification kit, certifiable to DO-178C Level A, for DDC-I’s Deos DO-178C safety-critical real-time operating system.  Avionics developers now have a flexible, compact, and high-performance COTS solution for quickly delivering a secure, FIPS 140-2 validated, communications.

Deos has always provided a robust foundation for secure systems. Its modularity, hard partitioning, denial of dynamic operations, integrity checks, and controlled interprocess communications all make it the preferred environment for high assurance systems.  The addition of wolfCrypt provides the proper cryptographic underpinnings for secure data transport, boot and firmware upgrades. Together, Deos and wolfCrypt provide trusted, military-grade security to connected avionics systems, making it ideal for not only military systems, but also Urban Air Mobility and next generation commercial avionics systems.

“DDC-I and wolfSSL provide best in class RTOS and crypto technology for DO-178C high design assurance applications that are not offered elsewhere,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing and product management at DDC-I. “Contrasting with the closed and restrictive approach most RTOS suppliers have taken with security, DDC-I has stayed firm to an open model leveraging third party solutions so customers can use the vendor and solution that works best for them. As a result, Deos users are empowered to incorporate the best-in-class technology available in the market, such as the products from wolfSSL, to solve their unique system requirements.”

“The integration of Deos and wolfCrypt should prove very attractive to avionics developers who require a secure, out-of-the-box, safety-critical solution that comes ready to certify, complete with DAL A evidence,” said Larry Stefonic, CEO and Founder at wolfSSL. “We have a very strong working relationship with DDC-I and find Deos to be quite straightforward to work with. Together, I believe we offer our joint customers a world class platform that features best-in-class RTOS and security.”

The wolfSSL embedded SSL library is a lightweight, portable, C language-based SSL/TLS library that targets embedded and RTOS environments for connected applications such as avionics. Featuring FIPS 140-2 certified cryptography, the compact library supports industry standards up to TLS 1.3 and DTLS 1.2, is up to 20 times smaller than OpenSSL, offers a simple API, provides an OpenSSL compatibility layer, and includes OCSP and CRL support.

To facilitate DO-178C level A certification, the wolfCrypt certification kit provides traceable artifacts for the following encryption algorithms:  SHA-256 message digest; AES encryption and decryption; RSA for signing and verifying messages; and chacha20_poly1305 for authenticated encryption and decryption. Any of the FIPS 140-2 validated crypto algorithms can be used in DO-178 mode for combined FIPS 140-2/DO 178 consumption.

DDC-I’s Deos is a field proven, safety-critical, avionics RTOS that is used to host a multitude of flight critical functions, such as air data computers, air data inertial reference units, cockpit video, displays and flight instrumentation, flight management systems, engine management, and many more.  Built from the ground up for safety-critical applications, Deos is the only certifiable time- and space-partitioned COTS RTOS that has been created using RTCA DO-178, Level A processes from the very first day of its product development. Deos’ unique modular design and verification evidence provides the easiest, lowest cost path to DO-178C DAL A certification, the highest level of safety criticality.

About DDC-I, Inc.

DDC-I, Inc. is a global supplier of real-time operating systems, software development tools, custom software development services, and legacy software system modernization solutions, with a primary focus on mission- and safety-critical applications. DDC-I’s customer base is an impressive “who’s who” in the commercial, military, aerospace, and safety-critical industries. DDC-I offers safety-critical real-time operating systems, compilers, integrated development environments and run-time systems for C, C++, Ada, and JOVIAL application development. For more information regarding DDC-I products, contact DDC-I at 4545 E. Shea Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85028; phone (602) 275-7172; fax (602) 252-6054; e-mail sales@ddci.com or visit https://www.ddci.com/pr2008.

About wolfSSL 
wolfSSL focuses on providing lightweight and embedded security solutions with an emphasis on speed, size, portability, features, and standards compliance. Dual licensed to cater to a diversity of users ranging from hobbyists to the user with commercial needs, we are happy to help our customers and community in any way we can. Our products are open source, giving customers the freedom to look under the hood. Our wolfSSL embedded TLS library is the first commercial release of TLS 1.3 in the world. For more information on wolfSSL products, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or visit wolfSSL.com.

Jennifer Deos, News, Press Release, RTOS

DDC-I Announces DO-178C DAL A Support for NXP’s Layerscape QorIQ LS1043A and LS1048A Processors

Accelerates development, certification and deployment of Layerscape-based DO-178C safety-critical avionics applications

 

Phoenix, AZ – July 31, 2019 – DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission- and safety-critical applications, today announced the availability of its Deos™ DO-178C certifiable safety-critical real-time operating system (RTOS) for NXP’s Layerscape QorIQ LS1043A and LS1048A processors, with verification evidence to Design Assurance Level A (DAL A). Layerscape processors running Deos provide a modular, high-performance, reusable platform for quickly developing and certifying avionics applications to DO-178C DAL A, the highest level of safety criticality.

“Deos cache partitioning, memory pools and time/space partitioning allow avionics developers to take full advantage of Layerscape’s high-performance multicore computing and versatile I/O and networking facilities while minimizing worst-case execution time,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing and product management at DDC-I. “Avionics designers utilizing Layerscape processors now have a flexible, reusable COTS platform to quickly develop safety-critical avionics applications with an accelerated, low risk path to flight safety certification.”

QorIQ® LS1043A and LS1048A processors are quad-core,  Arm®-based SoC processors that combine four Arm® Cortex®-A53 cores with 32 kbytes of instruction and data cache per core and 1M byte of L2 cache shared among the cores. Featuring integrated security, power management, coherency fabric, and data path acceleration capabilities, plus integrated I/O processing, the processors offer versatile I/O and networking interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet, IFC and Quad SPI flash, PWM, GPIO, USB 3.0, SATAIII, PCIe, I2C, SPI, and Flex Timers.

Deos is a field proven, safety-critical, avionics RTOS that is used to host a multitude of flight critical functions such as air data computers, air data inertial reference units, cockpit video, displays and flight instrumentation, flight management systems, engine management, and many more.  Built from the ground up for safety-critical applications, Deos is the only certifiable time- and space-partitioned COTS RTOS created using RTCA DO-178, Level A processes from the very first day of its product development. Deos’ unique modular design and verification evidence provides the easiest, lowest cost path to DO-178C DAL A certification, the highest level of safety criticality.

DDC-I’s SafeMC™ technology extends DDC-I’ s advanced time and space partitioning capabilities to multiple cores, enabling developers of safety-critical systems to achieve best in class multicore performance without compromising safety-critical task response and guaranteed execution times.

 

About DDC-I, Inc.

DDC-I, Inc. is a global supplier of real-time operating systems, software development tools, custom software development services, and legacy software system modernization solutions, with a primary focus on mission- and safety-critical applications. DDC-I’s customer base is an impressive “who’s who” in the commercial, military, aerospace, and safety-critical industries. DDC-I offers safety-critical real-time operating systems, compilers, integrated development environments and run-time systems for C, C++, Ada, and JOVIAL application development. For more information regarding DDC-I products, contact DDC-I at 4545 E. Shea Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85028; phone (602) 275-7172; fax (602) 252-6054; e-mail sales@ddci.com or visit https://www.ddci.com/pr1909.