Category: FACE

VTG Selects INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS for Safety-Critical Battery Management System

VTG in Chantilly, Virginia, has selected the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP real-time operating system (RTOS) from Green Hills Software as the software foundation of their Critical Battery Management System (CBMS). The CBMS is designed to enable the safe operation of Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) batteries for a variety of maritime power system applications, and the system will be fielded on special operations submersibles. VTG selected the FACE conformant INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS to run on the CBMS because it meets the highest design assurance level (DAL A) as defined in DO-178C/ED-12C, including multicore operation, and INTEGRITY-178 tuMP will be deployed on quad-core Intel Xeon processors.

Li-ion batteries are the most-used electrical storage medium due to a combination of high energy-density, low self-discharge, and affordability. The challenge is that Li-ion batteries present a significant risk of fire, outgassing toxic fumes, and even explosions. Confined spaces in aircraft, submarines, and surface ships increase the impact of a Li-ion battery fire in terms of equipment damage, injury to personnel, and loss of life. To enable those battery systems to be used in submersibles and transported on ships and submarines, VTG took a new approach focused on increasing the reliability of monitoring and preventing the scenarios that can lead to battery fires.

A basic BMS generally monitors current and voltage during charge and discharge and controls charging to stay within the current and voltage limits. During both charging and discharging, the BMS also monitors cell temperature as an indication of imminent thermal runaway. If a cell exceeds its temperature threshold, the BMS shuts down any active charging. To get an earlier read on any problems, VTG’s CBMS also measures heat sink temp, total battery voltage, battery current, pressure, and water intrusion to determine if it is safe to operate.

To provide the safest operation, the early warning of any battery issues must have high reliability and availability. VTG decided to leverage a safety-certifiable operating system and hardware from commercial aviation due to the extremely high level of rigor in meeting safety assurance objectives. For example, aviation hardware that meets the DAL A must have a probability of failure of less than 1×10^ 9/flight-hour. The VTG CBMS includes reductant fault-tolerant monitoring and control that extends down to the sensor level and up through the components of the CBMS so that there is no single point of failure.

The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP safety-critical RTOS from Green Hills Software is the only operating system to be part of a successful multicore certification to DO-178C DAL A and CAST-32A objectives. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP was the first RTOS to be certified conformant to a FACE Technical Standard that addressed multicore requirements, which was edition 3.0. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is the only RTOS with multicore interference mitigation for all shared processor resources, enabling the system integrator to meet CAST-32A objectives with robust partitioning. Robust partitioning is a prerequisite for a full implementation of integrated modular avionics (IMA) or being able to reuse an application component without complete retesting and reverification of the entire system.

For more information, visit www.GHS.com/INTEGRITY-178.

Merlin Selects FACE Conformant INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS for Autonomous Flight Solution

At the Aerospace Tech Week Europe, Green Hills Software announced that Merlin, the leading developer of safe autonomous flight technology for fixed-wing aircraft, has selected the FACE conformant INTEGRITY®-178 tuMP safety-critical real-time operating system (RTOS) for its autonomous flight solution. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP will run on the PU-3000 multicore avionics computer from CMC Electronics, which will host the flight control software that enables autonomous flying.

Merlin selected the PU-3000 running INTEGRITY-178 tuMP because it has the multicore processing power, diverse interfaces, and civil certification pedigree needed for its definitive autonomy system. The PU-3000 was the first multicore avionics computer to receive TSO authorization by meeting DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore objectives to the highest Design Assurance Level (DAL A).

Last year Merlin announced a $105M Series B and signed a partnership with the US Air Force to make the C-130J transport aircraft more autonomous in order to enhance safety and its operational flexibility.

“Green Hills Software is excited to be part of Merlin’s solution for autonomous flight technology in fixed-wing aircraft, including for the C-130J,” said Dan O’Dowd, founder and CEO of Green Hills Software. “Safe and correct operation is paramount for autonomous flight operations, and the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS has an unrivaled capability and pedigree in systems meeting DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore objectives.”

The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP safety-critical RTOS from Green Hills Software is the only operating system to be part of a successful multicore certification to DO-178C and CAST-32A objectives. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is a multicore RTOS with support for running a multi-threaded DAL A application across multiple processor cores in symmetric multi-processing (SMP) or bound multi-processing (BMP) configurations, as well as supporting the more basic asymmetric multi-processing (AMP). INTEGRITY-178 tuMP was the first RTOS to be certified conformant to the FACE Technical Standard, edition 3.0, and it is the only RTOS with multicore interference mitigation for all shared resources, enabling the system integrator to meet CAST-32A objectives. Multicore interference happens when more than one processor core attempts simultaneous access to a shared resource, such as system memory, I/O, or the on-chip interconnect. To further ease compliance to CAST-32A, Green Hills provides bandwidth allocation and monitoring (BAM) functionality in INTEGRITY-178 tuMP that ensures that critical applications get their allocated access to shared resources in order to meet their required deadlines, significantly lowering integration and certification risk. Together, the flexible multi-processing architecture and multicore interference mitigation enable a system integrator to maximize multicore processor performance while meeting safety and security requirements.

RTI Announces First Transport Services Segment with FACE 3.1 Conformance Certification and DO-178C DAL A Safety Evidence

Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the software framework company for autonomous systems, announced that RTI Connext TSS has achieved two industry firsts. It is the first Transport Services Segment (TSS) to receive conformance certification to the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard, Edition 3.1, and it is the first TSS available with RTCA DO-178C Design Assurance Level (DAL) A Safety certification evidence. Connext TSS uniquely delivers a standards-compliant software framework that accelerates the development of modular, open and safety-critical avionics systems.

RTI Connext TSS is the first software framework designed to meet the demanding requirements of data-centric, mission-critical and safety-critical systems. These systems require sharing data in real-time across multiple networks and multiple safety levels, as well as with other system components from different suppliers and operational entities. These critical systems have traditionally required custom, proprietary, single platform integration approaches that are not optimized for scalability, evolvability or ease of integration.

“The U.S. Army PEO Aviation congratulates RTI on their successful FACE Conformance Certification for FACE TSS,” said Mark Chess, CIO Office, U.S. Army PEO Aviation and elected chair of the FACE Consortium. “RTI’s commitment to the FACE Consortium and its expertise in a wide range of hardware and software platforms removes both program cost and risk for delivering best-in-class solutions for next-generation military platforms.”

Connext TSS 3.1 FACE conformance and DO-178C certification evidence were created on top of the DDC-I Deos safety RTOS executing on the North Atlantic Industries, Inc. (NAII) 68PPC2T2080 board. All parties have completed the development of DO-178C DAL A certification evidence for this solution stack. Together, this integrated FACE and DO-178C solution stack with DDC-I, NAII, and RTI provides an immediate commercial foundation for building next generation avionics systems, while reducing both program cost and risk.

“Connext TSS is a critical component of any next generation avionics system,” said Chip Downing, senior market director of Aerospace & Defense at RTI. “Connext TSS coupled with our diverse partner ecosystem accelerates integration while delivering proven real-time performance, scalability and robustness using data-centric, standards-based technologies. It is the obvious choice for platforms requiring both FACE conformance and RTCA DO-178C safety certification.”

RTI remains committed to supporting the FACE ecosystem and leading avionics platforms, ensuring the continuation of additional certifications with FACE 3.1 conformant OSS suppliers, processors and/or board environments. RTI has been a member of the FACE Consortium since 2010, providing unwavering support in the Data Model, Transport Services Segment, and Outreach committees. For more information, visit: https://bit.ly/3eaFWLi.

The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium Opens Membership to Organizations from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and United Kingdom

The Open Group FACE Consortium announced that organizations from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom will be eligible for membership of the aviation-focused professional and technical group. The move is a response to a growing demand from both businesses and the US and other governments as international cooperation grows in importance.

Membership will be open to any business or organization incorporated in or registered to do business in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, or United States. Organizations will be able to sign up for three levels of membership (Principal, Sponsor, or Associate), with unique benefits per level. Once an organization becomes a member of the FACE Consortium, all its employees are eligible to participate, provided they are persons of one of the five countries and complete the appropriate paperwork to become onboarded.

“We are delighted that organizations from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK will be able to join the Consortium,” said Alicia Taylor, The Open Group FACE Consortium director. “As a membership-driven organization, opening up to organizations from outside the US will be essential for the next phase of the Consortium. We see the international expansion as an opportunity to learn about the unique needs and initiatives of each country, while maximizing the benefits to all members.”

Steve Nunn, CEO and president of The Open Group commented: “As a global organization, we are proud that with concurrence from the US Department of Commerce, organizations from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK will be able to join the Consortium. We believe that the membership expansion will bring new ideas and expertise, allowing current members to learn from new members and vice versa, and we are excited about the new synergies that this will create.”

Chip Downing, Senior Market Development Director, Aerospace & Defense at Real-Time Innovations (RTI) added: “Opening up The Open Group FACE Consortium membership to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom is a watershed event for our organization. We can now tap into the highly diversified expertise of these nations, and deliver joint solutions that accelerate more powerful and interoperable airborne capabilities to global militaries.”

The Open Group FACE Consortium collaborates on developing open software standards to innovate processes and practices, and accelerate FACE adoption. With 90+ government, industry, and academic member organizations, the FACE Consortium has business processes that promote competition and are equitable to both suppliers and end-users; technical practices that enhance and accelerate the development and integration of capabilities; and component-based software standards that define a layered architecture with standard interfaces and a way to describe what data crosses those interfaces.

The Consortium is also addressing all five principles of the US Department of Defense directive of Modular Open System Approach (MOSA), which are equally applicable to global markets. When applied, these principles, combined with the practices and processes described above, enable software portability, reusability, and interoperability.

Aitech’s SWaP-C-optimized U-C9140 is First SOSA Aligned PowerPC SBC for Real-time Data Processing in Military and Defense Applications

Aitech Systems, a provider of rugged boards and system level solutions for military, aerospace and space applications, now offers the low power U-C9140, a PowerPC-based 3U VPX single board computer (SBC) that is aligned to The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard, Edition 1.0, providing for fast integration, improved time-to-market and lower risk.

“This unique combination of the PowerPC CPU architecture and alignment to the SOSA Technical Standard provides excellent performance in open standards-based real-time applications,” said Alex Trigoub, director, Board Level Product Line for Aitech. “It will also be Aitech’s first SOSA aligned SBC supporting FACE conformant Wind River VxWorks 653 OS and a compliant BSP. It fulfills a market need for designers looking for lower power consumption or who may want to reuse the widely-available existing PowerPC application code.”

Military and defense applications benefitting from this cost-effective SBC include mission computers, sensor signal processing, signal intelligence and electronic warfare, since it provides excellent performance per Watt.  In addition, the SBC’s FACE compliance (and future conformance) facilitates especially fast integration into airborne mission computers and applications.

The SOSA aligned U-C9140 is Aitech’s latest generation 3U VPX PowerPC SBC, based on NXP’s QorIQ T1/T2 Series SoC multi-core, multi-thread processors. For improved security assurance and protection against cyber-attacks, the U-C9140 also includes the latest QorIQ Secure Boot and Trust Architecture 2.0.

The variety of on-board I/O and large memory resources, including up to 8 GB of DDR3L and 64 GB of eMMC flash on-board mass storage, in combination with the powerful SoC processor, make the U-C9140 an ideal SBC for many real-time, rugged applications requiring superior SWaP-C optimization. An industry standard XMC slot provides flexibility and expandability, along with the availability, convenience and cost benefits of COTS.

The U.S. Army Selects Intellisense Systems for Secure Display Data Transfer Technology

The United States Army has awarded Intellisense Systems, Inc., a contract for development of the Secure Modular Architecture for Reusable Transfer of Display Data (SMART-2D) technology. SMART-2D enables pilots to securely upload key data like flight plans, mission data, or display configurations onto the aircraft via a smart carry-on device like a tablet or electronic flight bag.

This system incorporates an open-architecture approach that will significantly expand opportunities for interfacing aircraft displays with carry-on devices. SMART-2D implements Future Airborne Capabilities Environment (FACE)-conformant data models and innovatively exchanges display data over a secure network backbone that mitigates the impact to and integrity of mission-critical systems.

“We’re very excited to continue development of this new technology,” said Juan Hodelin, vice president and general manager of Airborne Systems at Intellisense. “This innovative use of a standards-based approach to achieve a common display solution with severability from federated aircraft systems is critical to supporting platform technology adoption. This includes support for domain separation that decouples the display system from core aircraft avionics, allowing mobile device connectivity to the display.”

In Phase II, Intellisense will develop a fully functional prototype and test it with various avionics vendors to verify interoperability with multiple display implementations and avionics suites. The development effort involves working with avionics prime systems integrators and identifying opportunities to collaborate with the Army’s Combat Aviation Brigade Architecture Integration Lab (CABAIL) to augment Intellisense’s diverse and cutting-edge avionics display offerings.

MOSA Solution Combines FACE Conformant OS with SOSA Aligned Intel Xeon 3U VPX Board for Security-Critical Applications

Abaco Systems, Inc. and Green Hills Software announced that the rugged, 3U VPX SBC3511 single board computer supports the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP real-time operating system (RTOS) for avionics and security-critical applications. The combined solution features a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) that is aligned to the SOSA Technical Standard and certified to the FACE™ Technical Standard. Together the products address many requirements of security-critical systems including both functional security and assurance requirements. Additionally, INTEGRITY-178 was certified to the NSA-defined Separation Kernel Protection Profile (SKPP) high-robustness security and Common Criteria EAL 6+, and INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is the first and only RTOS to be part of a cross-domain solution (CDS) certification to NSA’s new “Raise the Bar” standards.

“The high-performance of the multicore Intel Xeon E processor on the SBC3511 can be fully realized with the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP multicore RTOS,” said Richard Jaenicke, director of Marketing for Green Hills Software. “The built-in multicore interference mitigation capability in INTEGRITY-178 tuMP enables safe and deterministic performance even in the face of contention for shared resources by multiple processor cores.”

“The design of the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS to high-robustness security and Common Criteria EAL 6+ complements the wide range of security features built into the SBC3511 hardware and firmware designed to assist with the prevention of exploitation of critical technologies and data,” said Pete Thompson, Abaco’s VP of Product Management. “The combination of advanced security, high-performance, and leading-edge thermal management on the SBC3511 enables the joint solution to meet the demanding requirements of security-critical avionics systems.”

The SBC3511 3U OpenVPX rugged single board computer derives its high performance from the new, highly integrated Intel Xeon E-2276M 6-core/12-thread processor (formerly known as Coffee Lake Refresh) operating at 2.8GHz with TurboBoost up to 4.5GHz. It also features a 40 Gigabit Ethernet data plane, delivering a high-speed interconnect aligned with the SOSA I/O intensive profile for maximum multi-vendor interoperability. The SBC3511 utilizes an onboard Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale+™ MPSoC with built-in security capabilities. It can be utilized to instantiate a range of Abaco-defined security features or by customers to embed application-specific features. Support is also provided for Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology.

The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP high-assurance RTOS is designed to meet the strictest requirements for both airborne safety and security simultaneously, including RTCA/DO-178B/C design assurance level (DAL) A and the SKPP for High Robustness. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is a multicore RTOS with support for running a multi-threaded DAL A application across multiple processor cores in symmetric multi-processing (SMP) or bound multi-processing (BMP) configurations. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is the only RTOS to be part of a multicore certification to DO-178C and CAST-32A. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP was the first RTOS to be certified conformant to the FACE Technical Standard, edition 3.0, and it is the only RTOS with multicore interference mitigation for all shared resources. That bandwidth allocation and monitoring (BAM) functionality ensures that critical applications meet their required deadlines, significantly lowering integration and certification risk. The INTEGRITY-178 RTOS is the only commercial operating system ever certified to the Separation Kernel Protection Profile (SKPP) published by the Information Assurance Directorate of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). That certification was done by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) to Common Criteria EAL 6+ “High Robustness,” and included all the functionality required to run multi-level security (MLS) applications, such as cross-domain solutions (CDS). INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is also the only RTOS to be part of a certification to NSA’s “Raise the Bar” standards for cross domain solutions.

Collins Aerospace Leads Multi-Domain Operation Demonstration of Open Systems for U.S. Military

Collins Aerospace – in collaboration with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Parry Labs, Tektonux and Palantir Technologies – successfully conducted a multi-domain operation (MDO) demonstration at the recent Open Group FACE and SOSA Consortia Technical Interchange Meeting to highlight the benefits of an open systems architecture.  

As the integration lead, Collins worked with the team to successfully bring together individual capabilities of government/third-party software and multiple third-party mission computers – including Parry Labs’ Stellar Relay – into a helicopter flight deck using the company’s digital backbone, hardware, software and integration expertise. A total of 19 different FACE Units of Portability (UoPs) were integrated into a rotary-wing flight deck, demonstrating these components had the ability to be moved from one aircraft to another or replaced by a compatible component.

“In conjunction with our industry partners, we demonstrated an operational open systems solution that will support the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) guidelines and standards required by the U.S. Army,” said Dave Schreck, vice president and general manager for Military Avionics and Helicopters at Collins Aerospace. “These standards have been put in place to ensure complex aviation systems are designed to reduce integration time and ultimately increase rapid, affordable deployments of innovation.”

Collins also conducted a similar MDO demonstration with the same industry partners at its new Open Systems Center of Excellence at the recently launched Customer Experience Center (CEC) in Huntsville, Alabama. The CEC was created so Collins can work more closely with its service and industry partners on critical Army Aviation initiatives, including Future Vertical Lift and enduring fleet modernization.

The Open Group FACE Consortium is a government and industry partnership to define an open avionics environment for multiple airborne platform types. The SOSA Consortium enables government and industry to collaboratively develop open standards and best practices to enable, enhance and accelerate the deployment of affordable, capable, interoperable sensor systems.

DDC-I Showcases Industry’s First FACE 3.1 Conformant RTOS at Aerospace Tech Week

DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission- and safety-critical applications, announced that it will be at Aerospace Tech Week demonstrating the industry’s first RTOS to pass Operating System Segment (OSS) Conformance Testing for the Safety Base and Safety Extended Profiles of the FACE Technical Standard, Edition 3.1. DDC-I will also present a technical paper on Accelerating Avionics Safety and Airworthiness Using the FACE Architecture.

Aerospace Tech Week will be held in Toulouse, France November 3-4. DDC-I will exhibit in Booth # 900 directly adjacent to the Open Group FACE Consortium Pavilion, the first public Future Airborne Compatibility Environment (FACE) event in Europe. Attendance at this event expands the exposure of the FACE capabilities and associated software portability into NATO countries and strengthens its relationships with global coalition partners.

Deos is a certified FACE conformant OSS on ARM, PowerPC and Intel processors. At the show DDC-I will provide a live demonstration of its Deos SafeMC™ multicore kernel running on a quad core NXP Layerscape ARM Cortex-A53 processor. To highlight its ARINC 653 and FACE application portability, Deos will run RTI’s FACE aligned DDS connectivity software as the Transport Services Segment (TSS). The demo will also highlight Deos development tools, which provide visibility into the resource availability and timing of the multicore system.

“FACE is gaining market acceptance as a standard framework for software portability that reduces cost and speeds time to market by fostering standard, open interfaces that enhance portability, interoperability, and reuse,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing and product management at DDC-I. “We’re excited to be involved with this first FACE event at Aerospace Tech Week and look forward to introducing the avionics community to the advancements in portability of our safety-critical DO-178C DAL A verified RTOS, the industry’s first FACE 3.1 conformant COTS RTOS certified on ARM, PowerPC, and Intel processors.”

The Deos RTOS Platform for FACE combines the time and space partitioned Deos RTOS and SafeMC multi-core technology with RTEMS (Real Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems), a mature, deterministic, open systems, hard real-time POSIX executive. The integrated platform combines the strengths and pedigree of both ARINC-653 and POSIX RTOSs, providing the industry standard interfaces and feature set required for conformance with the FACE Technical Standard, Safety Extended and Safety Base Operating System Profiles, all in a time- and space-partitioned, hard real-time, multi-core execution model.

Raytheon Intelligence and Space Selects FACE Certified RTOS for Military GPS User Equipment

Green Hills Software announced the selection of the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP real-time operating system (RTOS) by Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) for their offering of the Military Global Positioning System User Equipment (MGUE) Increment (Inc) 2 Miniature Serial Interface (MSI) with Next-Generation Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). RI&S is developing one MSI card for aviation and maritime systems and another MSI card for ground-based systems, and INTEGRITY-178 tuMP will be used in both solutions running on the Arm® processor-based ASIC. RI&S selected the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS based on its use in previous programs and for its ability to simultaneously meet both safety and security requirements. Those requirements included the highest DO-178C design assurance level (DAL A) and the NSA-defined separation kernel protection profile (SKPP) for “high robustness” security. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is also certified to the FACE Technical Standard 3.0 for both the safety and security profiles.

The Military GPS User Equipment is the GPS receiver for the modernized GPS Enterprise, and it is capable of receiving military code (M-Code) from newer satellites, including GPS-III. M-Code is a more robust, jam-resistant form of GPS that also uses more modern and flexible encryption methods to make it resistant to spoofing. The MGUE Inc 2 MSI program is developing a smaller M-Code ASIC and receiver card that consumes less power while increasing functionality, security, and performance. The smaller card will enable use in handheld and dismounted applications as well as mounted, maritime, and aviation platforms. The Government Accountability Office estimates that approximately 700 different types of weapon systems will ultimately require M-Code cards and M-Code-capable receivers, including ships, aircraft, ground vehicles, munitions, and handheld devices. RI&S was one of three companies awarded by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command for the MGUE Inc 2 MSI with Next-Generation ASIC program.

“Green Hills Software has a long history of working with RI&S on GPS & navigation systems, and we are pleased to be part of their MSI with Next Generation ASIC solution,” said Dan O’Dowd, founder and CEO of Green Hills Software. “Airborne GPS solutions require both safety and security, and the INTEGRITY-178 RTOS has an unrivaled pedigree in the combination of certified high-robustness security with certified DO-178C safety assurance.”

The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP high-assurance RTOS from Green Hills Software is uniquely designed to meet both DO-178C DAL A airborne safety requirements and the NSA-defined Separation Kernel Protection Profile. INTEGRITY-178 is the only commercial operating system ever certified to the SKPP, and that certification was done by the National Information Assurance Partnership to Common Criteria EAL 6+ and “High Robustness.” Beyond the separation kernel, INTEGRITY-178 tuMP provides a complete set of APIs for use by multi-level security applications within a secure partition, e.g., an MLS guard, which is a fundamental requirement in a cross-domain system. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is also the first and only RTOS to be part of a cross-domain solution certification to NSA’s new “Raise the Bar” initiative. INTEGRITY-178 was the first commercial RTOS approved as complying with DO-178B Level A objectives, and INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is the only RTOS to be part of a multicore certification to DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore objectives. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP directly supports a Modular Open Systems Approach, and it was the first RTOS to be certified conformant to the FACE™ Technical Standard, edition 3.0.