DDC-I announces HeartOS DO-178B RTOS support for ARM processors

PHOENIX, USA: DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission- and safety-critical applications, announced that its safety-critical, DO-178B Level A certifiable, HeartOS real-time operating system and OpenArbor development tool suite is available for the ARM7 and ARM9 families of processors.

The HeartOS running atop ARM processors provides a scalable, low-power, high-performance computing platform for developing and hosting mission- and safety-critical applications for the avionics, transportation, industrial automation and medical markets. HeartOS is particularly well suited for applications requiring DO-178B certification from the FAA and international aviation authorities.

HeartOS is a lightweight, deterministic kernel that utilizes POSIX profile 51 interfaces as well as profile 52 features such as socket communications. Currently undergoing certification to DO-178B Level A, the HeartOS kernel provides POSIX scheduling, threads, semaphores, mutexes, barriers, condition variables, message queues, clocks and timers.

HeartOS is highly scalable and configurable, making it ideal for 16- and 32-bit microcontrollers and microprocessors. HeartOS also features a compact, lightweight deterministic TCP/IP stack for embedded networking and internet connectivity.

“HeartOS provides a scalable, compact, lightweight complement to our time- and space-partitioned Deos embedded OS, making it ideal for hosting small- to medium-sized safety-critical applications targeting ARM processors,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing at DDC-I.

“HeartOS is certifiable to the most stringent FAA software standards and utilizes POSIX interfaces for maximum application portability. It also provides bounded networking support and complete development tool support.”

“The rising performance levels, product breadth and energy efficiency delivered by the ARM processor family is accelerating its adoption into a range of non-mobile embedded applications,” added Ian Johnson, third-party program manager at ARM. “We welcome the decision from DDC-I to support the ARM architecture, believing that the combination of HeartOS and ARM processor technology provides an excellent platform for developing, hosting and certifying a broad range of safety-critical applications.”

Development support for the HeartOS includes DDC-I’s Eclipse-based, mixed-language OpenArbor IDE, which features C and C++ optimizing compilers, a color-coded source editor, project management support, automated build utilities, and a mixed-language, multi-window, symbolic debugger.