Wind River VxWorks 653

An integrated modular avionics (IMA) platform enabling workload consolidation of safety-critical and less critical applications.

Overview

VxWorks 653 is a safe, secure, and reliable real-time operating system (RTOS) that delivers an open virtualization platform with robust time and space partitioning on the latest PowerPC multi-core processor platforms. With technology proven by more than 360 customers over 600 safety programs in more than 100 civilian and military aircraft, VxWorks 653 is driving the transition to software-defined systems in aerospace and defense, bringing innovative technology that solves real business problems.

As technology progresses, the defense industry is increasingly using a mixture of powerful hardware platforms and standards-based, open virtualization systems that support unmodified guest OS environments, enabling developers to make use of the platforms’ flexibility to extract value across multiple use cases. One example is the consolidation specification for IMA systems: ARINC specification 653. Use of this internationally accepted specification enables
multiple avionics vendors and hosted-function suppliers to safely deploy integrated applications on a shared multicore hardware platform, while maintaining complete system conformance with rigorous avionics safety standards such as RTCA DO-178C, EUROCAE ED-12C, RTCA DO-254, EUROCAE ED-80, RTCA DO-297, and EUROCAE ED-124.

VxWorks® 653 Multi-core Edition is a safe, secure, and reliable real-time operating system (RTOS). It delivers an ARINC 653–conformant system by providing robust time and space partitioning on the latest hardware platforms to ensure fault containment and the ability to upgrade applications with minimal test and integration demands.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

  • VxWorks 653 Multi-core Edition lowers upgrade costs by providing high portability across product lines and airborne platforms.
  • Simultaneous support for ARINC 653 APEX API, VxWorks, POSIX®, FACEâ„¢, Software Communications Architecture (SCA), and application programming interfaces (APIs)
  • Support for applications written in Ada, C, and C++
  • Unmodified guest OS support that eases portability for legacy applications mixed with modern, standards-based applications and operating systems
  • Employs a modular open architecture and supports robust partitioning that enables suppliers to modify an application that is part of an existing certified system and only retest the scope of the components that have changed, dramatically reducing recertification costs.
  • Designed around a multi-supplier, role-based supply chain per RTCA DO-297, which allows application suppliers to asynchronously develop, test, and deliver software applications independently
  • Enables the virtualization of unmodified guest operating systems, allowing applications to run in parallel on separate cores and virtualization environments, increasing safety, security, robustness, and compute capacity
  • Built on the VxWorks and VxWorks 653 rich pedigree of single and multi-core development, proven in more than 550 programs delivered by over 350 customers in more than 90 aircraft