Abstract
Keywords:
ARINC653, IMA, Avionics Software, Avionics Standards, Certification.
Abstract
The paper covers the definition of Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA), the associated avionics standards and the impact on the Avionics Software. ARINC and RTCA/EUROCAE committees, in which all Avionic stakeholders are involved, developed these standards. 2005 is a key year for standardization: ARINC653 part1 supplement2 and part3 are ready for publishing, RTCA-SC200 / EUROCAE-WG60 is under ballot. The concepts of IMA, the new architecture in Avionics, were defined in the late Eighties and published for the first time in the ARINC651 standard in 1991. The IMA concepts were firstly applied on Boeing 777, extended and used on Airbus A380 and now selected for the future Boeing 787. These concepts divide the avionic embedded domain into Platform (Hardware+Core Software) and Applications instead of Hardware and Software. Several applications of different criticality levels could reside on the same platform.
The consequences were the development of new standards and guidelines for supporting these concepts, e.g.:
- ARINC653 defines the API and the behavior of the Core Software services.
- DO-255/ED-96 contains the description of an Avionic Computing Resource (a platform separated from its hosted applications).
- DO-248B/ED-94B clarifies DO-178B/ED-12B and defines concepts like robust partitioning.
- SC200/WG60 (future ED-124) contains the IMA Development Guidance and Certification.
- SC205/WG71 has started. It reviews and extends DO-178B/ED-12B and DO-248B/ED-94B in regard of new technologies.
The paper describes the objectives and the results of these standardization committees. It focuses on ARINC653 and ED-124 standards and presents shortly the associated standards.