WITTENSTEIN and RTI to provide safety-critical software for embedded systems

WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems and Real-Time Innovations (RTI) have announced a global technology partnership to enable system developers to accelerate the development of embedded applications targeting the safety critical market.

The partnership will allow developers to take advantage of commercial development paths to safety certification using commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) from prototype to release using FreeRTOS, WHIS SAFERTOS and RTI Connext.

SAFERTOS is a pre-emptive, safety critical RTOS that delivers determinism and robustness to embedded systems while using minimal resources. RTI Connext is a software framework for autonomous systems, and RTI Connext Cert provides the real-time data connectivity for safety-critical systems such as autonomous vehicles, connected healthcare and avionics. Both WHIS and RTI offer pre-certified software at the ISO 26262 ASIL D levels.

WHIS is currently used across a wide range of safety critical applications and is well known for its high-software quality. SAFERTOS is available pre-certified by TÜV SÜD to ISO 26262 ASIL D and IEC 61508 SIL 3. The upgrade path from FreeRTOS to SAFERTOS offers an advantage to developers, who can prototype using FreeRTOS and convert to SAFERTOS at the start of formal development.

RTI Connext Micro is a lightweight connectivity framework that works with FreeRTOS in early prototype environments of resource-constrained applications that require real-time performance.

Once the application is ready to move to the commercial stage, developers can migrate to SAFERTOS and Connext Cert, which provide the production-grade technology. When integrated with SAFERTOS, Connext Cert will enable developers to build applications on the latest safety microcontrollers, providing a solid foundation to support their safety-critical applications.

“Technology partnerships such as this between WHIS and RTI are vital for the industry,” said Andrew Longhurst, Managing Director, WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems. “There is a natural fit between SAFERTOS and RTI Connext Cert that will be of great benefit to automotive developers focusing on safety.”

“From unmanned vehicles to defence systems to robotics, systems today are becoming more intelligent, autonomous and interconnected. Before we can reach widespread adoption, we need to eliminate gaps that could lead to safety risks. Built-in safety mechanisms throughout the software stack will deliver the necessary protection to ensure the systems perform without incident,” explained Niheer Patel, Director of Product Management, RTI. “Our customers are prioritising safety, and we are focused on delivering this through our work with WITTENSTEIN in order to deliver pre-certified safety software to run advanced embedded systems.”