First FACE operating system segment certification achieved

The VxWorks 653 is the first Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) product to achieve this significant FACE certification milestone, and can now be rapidly integrated with other FACE software components that have passed FACE conformance verification.

The FACE approach is a government-industry software standard and business strategy for acquisition of affordable software systems that promotes innovation and rapid integration of portable capabilities across global defence programmes.  The FACE Consortium, managed by the Open Group, has created a suite of business and technical documents to form as the foundation of this global specification supported by over 90 government and industry member organisations and over 1,000 individuals. 

Wind River worked with its FACE Verification Authority, TES-SAVI, to complete this rigorous FACE certification conformance testing. The completion of the FACE Verification process was announced by the Open Group earlier this month.

As a founding member of the FACE Consortium we are proud of the work that our Wind River team and the FACE membership have performed. Successfully completing the FACE conformance certification launches a new era of rapid integration and deployment of global avionics software. This FACE certification directly removes risk from programmes building next generation Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) systems.

Wind River’s VxWorks 653 is a COTS platform for delivering safety-critical, Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) applications. This avionics platform consolidation solution is now used in over 400 programmes by more than 200 customers in over 80 aircraft, and supported by 24 partners. VxWorks 653 is a key technology in a wide range of commercial, space, safety, autonomous, and mission-critical programs, around the globe.

These include commercial and military aircraft such as the Airbus A400M, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the Northrop Grumman Black Hawk UH-60V Cockpit Digitisation Programme. VxWorks 653 is supported by a COTS FAA RTCA DO-178C and EUROCAE ED-12C Design Assurance Level (DAL). A safety certification evidence DVD that contains over 70,000 files to support the safety qualities of the product. VxWorks 653 recently received top honours in the ‘Military & Aerospace Electronics and Intelligent Aerospace Technology Innovation Awards.’

Courtesy of Wind River.