WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems Combine Their Renowned, Safety Critical Real Time Operating System, SAFERTOS® With The RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture
19 Jul, 2023Learn how the market leading SAFERTOS® can help you build safe applications.
Safety-Critical Real Time Operating Systems
Functional safety is becoming increasingly important, with every new update, processors increase in power and features. This is particularly relevant in the automotive sector, with cars quickly becoming super computers on wheels. The greater the control the software has over a vehicle, the more safety critical it becomes. This is increasingly the case in today’s world and in the future with the rise of AI and vehicle autonomy.
In this blog post, you will read how WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems (WHIS) can provide you with a safety critical RTOS, that is required by many automotive applications and how SAFERTOS® can help alleviate some of the problems that developers now face.
Increased Complexity
With every new update, processors increase in power and features. An unfortunate side effect is the increase in complexity, requiring the developer to read and understand larger amounts of information. In safety critical applications this complexity poses a significant risk. How does the designer know whether they have covered all eventualities?
One approach is to split the design between the embedded platform and the application. The embedded platform typically includes the processor, a Real Time Operating System commonly referred to as an RTOS, the drivers, middleware, and low-level verification routines. The embedded platform encapsulates and abstracts the deeply embedded engineering aspects away from the application. The application then only needs to focus on the functional and safety requirements of the overall system. It is becoming increasingly popular to tackle complexity by constructing the embedded platform from Functional Safety Components – a common solution being to make use of a Functional Safety processor.
Software Development Standards
SAFERTOS® is a Functional Safety Component that provides developers with a responsive, deterministic embedded RTOS coupled with a Design Assurance Pack (DAP) that provides an easy route to achieving certification of SAFERTOS® once integrated into a Safety Product.
SAFERTOS® and its DAP are available pre-certified by TÜV SÜD to ISO 26262-2,-6,-8 to Automotive Safety Integrity Level D (ASIL D). The ISO 26262 standard is an adaptation of the Functional Safety standard IEC 61508 for Automotive Electric/ Electronic Systems. ISO 26262 defines functional safety for automotive equipment applicable throughout the lifecycle of all automotive electronic and electrical safety-related systems to ensure the safety requirements are met.
ASIL D is the highest degree of automotive safety rating under this standard. ASIL D is achieved by performing a risk analysis of a potential hazard that examines the severity, exposure and controllability of the vehicle operating scenario – determining the levels of risk.
When designing SAFERTOS®, WHIS engineers have made assumptions about the safety goals and ASIL level required. These safety goals are described within the SAFERTOS® Safety Manual along with the installation and integration instructions. Developers using SAFERTOS® need to confirm that the safety goals defined by SAFERTOS® meet the requirements of their projects.
In addition to automotive SAFERTOS® supports the safety design standards for the industrial (IEC 61508), aerospace (DO-178C) and medical sectors (IEC 62304/FDA 510(k)).
Design Assurance Pack
SAFERTOS® is tailored to your specific processor/compiler combination. The DAP provides complete transparency over the full Design Life Cycle, and illustrates the exceptional high quality of SAFERTOS®
The DAP contains every design artifact produced during the full development life cycle, from development and safety life cycle plans, requirements specifications and design documents, to HAZOPS, full source code, all verification and validation documents and relating evidence. The full test harness, with user and safety manuals, is also supplied. It even contains an ‘out the box’ application demonstrating the use of each SAFERTOS® API.
The all-important Safety Manual explains exactly how to install and integrate SAFERTOS® into your development environment. Following the concise instructions will also generate the evidence required by your auditors to confirm the process has been followed correctly. This removes the need to re-test SAFERTOS® on your target hardware and provides a solid dependable platform for your development.
WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems and Microchip solution
WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems have been Premier Partners of Microchip for a long time. The MiV_RV32 is the latest in a succession of Microchip processors supported by WHIS. To help support the MiV_RV32, WHIS has also joined the Microchip Mi-V Ecosystem this allows developers quicker access to information on SAFERTOS® and all the latest innovations from WHIS.
To download a free, SAFERTOS® application working on the MiV_RV32 with Softconsole for the Renode Emulator go to https://www.highintegritysystems.com/download-centre/
Learn More
SAFERTOS® is a pre-certified safety Real Time Operating System (RTOS) for embedded processors developed by WHIS, a global safety systems company. It delivers superior performance and pre-certified dependability whilst utilizing minimal resources. SAFERTOS® is delivered with a Design Assurance Pack (DAP), tailored specifically for the customer processor / compiler combination. SAFERTOS® supports a wide range of international development standards and is widely used across multiple sectors. Popular due to its impressive safety credentials, SAFERTOS® also features a unique adoption model – start your project for free with FreeRTOS and upgrade to SAFERTOS® at the start of formal development. To see how we can help with your project and to request your evaluation, contact us today at https://www.highintegritysystems.com/question/.
About WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems
WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems is a safety systems company that produces and supplies Real Time Operating Systems and platform solutions to the Automotive, Medical Industrial and Aerospace sectors worldwide. For more information, please visit: