Building and deploying innovative mission-critical software systems while controlling lifetime costs requires a platform that is open and adaptable. For defense systems, it also requires a foundation that is certifiably secure and safe. Can a software platform accomplish these goals together?
Click to read our contributions to the latest online article in Military Embedded Systems.
LYNX MOSA.ic was designed for the modernization of avionic and mission critical software platforms, providing open flexibility on a robust foundation to meet the program needs of rich system functionality deployed in high threat safety critical environments. The intent is in the name: a Modular Open Systems Architecture Integration Center (MOSA.ic).
LYNX MOSA.ic is not an RTOS, nor is it a traditional hypervisor. It is a complete software development and integration kit founded on a tiny separation kernel, with unique tools for leveraging the hardware virtualization capabilities of modern multi-core processors. Designed to enable system developers to build systems compositionally—using open standards and relying heavily on the reuse of well-tested and certified components—LYNX MOSA.ic speeds development, provides finer-grained hardware control, and lowers lifetime costs.
Multicore processors are becoming more popular to reduce size, cost, and power of platforms. There are numerous challenges in building safe systems on multicore processors, including that they exhibit non-deterministic memory access delays when competing for shared resources. When multiple applications stacks run in parallel on multicore processors, interference occurs. Lynx has partnered with Intel to address hardware interference. Some of our work with Intel, focused on the Intel’s Denverton processor, is addressed in a Intel Solution Brief here as well as a recent webinar (a slide from which is shown below)
Lynx is committed to delivering software to support a diverse range of Intel’s future processors including ElkHart Lake and Intel’s 11th generation Core processor, Tiger Lake. What this means for Leonardo is that you can reuse proven application software on platforms that incorporate the latest and greatest Intel processors in a timely and cost effective way, improving your time to market and drastically reducing both development and system certification costs.
A DO-178B/C Reusable Software Component (RSC) is a software collection that is recognized as meeting the requirements of RTCA/DO-178B/C and that may be used on more than one project without having to regenerate certification artifacts.
The FAA grants RSC acceptance as part of a normal certification process, provided that the applicant complies with the guidance policy defined in FAA Advisory Circular AC 20-148. The acceptance allows future users of the DO-178B/C RSC to deploy the software without the added cost and risk of re-certification. This applies to components such as operating systems and networking protocols, that can then be reused (in unadulterated form) across hardware platforms.
