Assurance Benefits of ISO 26262 compliant Microcontrollers for safety-critical Avionics
This addresses safety assurance for avionic systems using commercial hardware, but it is incremental as it applies existing automotive standards to a new domain.
The paper tackles the challenge of assuring safety in avionic systems using complex Microcontroller Units (MCUs) not developed for aerospace, by evaluating how ISO 26262 compliant MCUs from automotive applications can benefit avionic assurance processes, with results demonstrating expected improvements in assurance activities.
The usage of complex Microcontroller Units (MCUs) in avionic systems constitutes a challenge in assuring their safety. They are not developed according to the development requirements accepted by the aerospace industry. These Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware components usually target other domains like the telecommunication branch. In the last years MCUs developed in compliance to the ISO 26262 have been released on the market for safety-related automotive applications. The avionic assurance process could profit from these safety MCUs. In this paper we present evaluation results based on the current assurance practice that demonstrates expected assurance activities benefit from ISO 26262 compliant MCUs.