SANTA BARBARA, Calif., 17 May 2012. Rockwell Collins has selected the INTEGRITY-178B tuMP multicore operating system by Green Hills Software, a provider of high assurance operating systems, for use in their mission computer for the RQ-7B Shadow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The Rockwell Collins GPC-3000 Mission Computer will host the INTEGRITY-178B time-variant unified multi processing (tuMP) capabilities using the Freescale QorIQ P4080, an eight-core processor.

The INTEGRITY-178B enables multiple independent safety- and/or security-critical applications to execute on a multicore operating environment in a predictable and bounded manner. The operating system and the operational environment it provides are configurable so that interference between applications is prevented or controlled such that the interference can be accurately predicted and accounted for.

Time-variant unified multi processing defines groupings (called affinity groups) of how cores will be utilized by one or more applications, with the grouping of cores and applications being permitted to vary over time. Sets of affinity groups are scheduled independently of other sets of affinity groups, allowing time-lines that correspond to application requirements and also permit other sets of affinity groups to be developed that can make use of any of the time windows where cores are not being used. Any new application or extension of an existing application can make use of the unallocated execution time across the multicore processor. INTEGRITY-178B tuMP extends partitioning support beyond single-core processors, allowing flexible capability to be used to host multiple applications while preserving resources for application growth.