Wind River broadens safety certification for VxWorks Cert

embedded world 2011, NUREMBERG, GERMANY: Wind River, a world leader in embedded and mobile software, has announced updated certification evidence for industrial safety standard IEC 61508 for its VxWorks Cert platform.

This certification evidence, along with updated certification evidence for avionics safety standards RTCA DO-178B and EUROCAE ED-12B, is now available for the first time on Intel Architecture and for PowerPC e300 and e600 architectures. Additionally, VxWorks Cert now provides a board support package (BSP) for the Kontron 6U CompactPCI processor board CP6016, an Intel Core 2 platform. This pre-integrated commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software combination can accelerate customer certification processes, decrease development costs and speed time-to-market.

Wind River’s IEC 61508 SIL3 (safety integrity level) certificate is provided by TÜV SÜD, an internationally recognized safety certification authority. The IEC 61508 industrial safety standard forms a basis for many derived standards, including the IEC 61513 nuclear standard and the CENELEC EN50128 railway standard.

Proof of certification for the real-time operating system (RTOS) helps to accelerate the required certification work for the creation of a certified, safe system in markets where safety and reliability are imperative. VxWorks was first certified for IEC 61508 SIL3 in April 2004. Moreover, Wind River’s partnership with Kontron to create a COTS BSP directly addresses increased demand for a pre-integrated package that will help accomplish final system certification faster in multiple market segments, including avionics, industrial automation and transportation systems.

“The level of certification evidence required by government and regulatory bodies is becoming more stringent, creating the potential for product delays,” said Warren Kurisu, vice president of product management for VxWorks at Wind River. “Maintaining and updating our VxWorks Cert product is imperative to supporting our key COTS hardware partners. These latest advancements of achieving both the IEC 61508 certificate and developing a COTS BSP with Kontron demonstrates our commitment to our customers and to our partner ecosystem to provide proven COTS platforms that can reduce project delays associated with complying with system certification standards.”

“Wind River has the product maturity and track record in safety critical systems and can provide assurance that the software meets multiple strict safety certification requirements,” said Norbert Hauser, vice president of marketing for Kontron. “Kontron’s 6U CompactPCI processor board CP6016 in combination with Wind River’s VxWorks Cert Platform helps customers accelerate certification requirements for their safe system, and ultimately, get to market faster in a highly competitive market.”

Updated full certification material for VxWorks Cert is available now to customers worldwide on Intel Core 2 Duo, PowerPC e300 and PowerPC e600. This certification material is complemented with Wind River’s proven consulting services team for certification projects. This team helps customers fully leverage the Wind River certification COTS package on various customer-specific configurations, derived standards and additional architectures.