Green Hills Software INTEGRITY-178 tuMP meets DO-178B Level A certification requirements for Esterline CMC avionics

DAYTON, Ohio, 16 Aug. 2016. Software engineers at Green Hills Software, maker of high-assurance operating systems, in Santa Barbara, California, have completed all the RTCA/DO-178B Level A certification requirements for its INTEGRITY-178 tuMP multicore real-time operating system (RTOS) for use in the new generation of integrated avionics computers and smart displays from Esterline CMC in Bellevue, Washington.

Esterline CMC engineers will initially deploy INTEGRITY-178 tuMP on the company’s third-generation MFD-3068 Smart Display, which uses an NXP P3041 multicore processor. The MFD-3068 Smart Display will be deployed on the Antonov Airlines AN-124 transport aircraft and AN-148/AN-158/AN-178 regional jets which will be certified by Esterline CMC and Transport Canada Civil Aviation.

Engineers and officials at Airbus Helicopters and the German Armed Forces also have selected the MFD-3068 Smart Display for the upgrade of CH-53GS/GE Sea Stallion helicopters.

“Today’s multicore technology offered us the increased computing capacity that we required for our advanced line of smart displays and mission computers, but also presented serious safety challenges with their integration and deployment in flight critical systems as compared to the previous generation of single core processors,” explains Jim Palmer, vice president of products and navigation solutions at Esterline CMC. “Our goal was to achieve the ideal size, weight, and power (SWaP) reduction from modern multicore parts while simultaneously harnessing as much of their available throughput as possible. We needed a supplier capable of meeting these SWaP and throughput goals without jeopardizing our safety certification requirements. After a very thorough and extensive trade study, Green Hills Software’s INTEGRITY-178 tuMP was the only RTOS that met all these requirements.”

“INTEGRITY-178 was the world’s first commercial multi-safety level partitioned RTOS to successfully comply with the certification requirements of RTCA/DO-178B Level A back in 2002,” according to Dan O’Dowd, founder and chief executive officer of Green Hills Software. “We introduced our multicore update, INTEGRITY-178 tuMP, to the aerospace and defense industry five years ago, delivering the most functionally advanced and capable operating system for safety- and security-critical systems that rely on multicore processors.

“We are now proud to announce the successful completion of all DO-178B Level A certification activities for our INTEGRITY-178 tuMP operating system for Esterline CMC’s next generation of avionics products,” O’Dowd adds. “While other operating system vendors provide meaningless PowerPoint charts on the SWaP benefits of multicore processors in airborne systems, Green Hills Software actually delivers the best multicore throughput and SWaP reduction in the industry with our proven INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS.”

INTEGRITY-178 tuMP has been shipping to Green Hills Software’s aerospace and defense customers since 2010 and builds upon a proven 15-year service history and certification pedigree of its INTEGRITY-178 single-core predecessor by incorporating multicore operating system capabilities, including support for both AMP and SMP operation.

The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP multicore operating system is available for Intel, NXP PowerPC/QorIQ, and ARM architectures, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit operation. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP for Intel architectures also offers support for both Linux and Windows GuestOS virtualization. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP offers complete support for the ARINC-653 Part 1 standard as well as the Part 2 optional features such as Sampling Port Data Structures, Sampling Port Extensions, Memory Blocks, Multiple Module Schedules and File System.

INTEGRITY-178 tuMP offers options such as a DO-178B Level A compliant network stack and file system, both based on a Client/Server architecture that features the ability of the Level A Server to communicate simultaneously with multiple Clients operating at different safety levels (DAL A – E), located on the same or different cores. INTEGRITY-178 aligns with the FACE 2.1 Safety Base and Security profiles, with support for the current FACE 3.0 Safety Base and Security draft profiles already in place.

Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software is an independent vendor of embedded development solutions. In 2008, the Green Hills INTEGRITY-178 RTOS was the first and only operating system to be certified by NIAP (National Information Assurance Partnership comprised of NSA & NIST) to EAL 6+, High Robustness, the highest level of security ever achieved for any software product, company officials say. The company’s open architecture integrated development solutions address embedded, security, and high-reliability applications for the military/avionics, medical, industrial, automotive, networking, consumer, and other markets that demand industry-certified solutions. Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif., with European headquarters in the United Kingdom.

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