Certification criteria for emulation technology in the australian defence force military avionics context
Derek Wade Reinhardt · 2007
Emulatin technology promises to provide a means of addressing obsolescence issues in legacy computer processors in the military avionics domains. It has also been suggested that such technology might apply to safety critical and safety related systems in these domains. Numerous companies either have developed or are developing software components that are capable of emulating different legacy computing platforms. The emulators permit the execution of legacy code on newer computing platforms, without change to existing binary executables or data. Subsequent modifications to the legacy code in question may be made using either the legacy development environment and/or with some emulation technologies using a newer development environment. The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is presently working with Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST) to develop a concept demonstrator utilising NGST's Reconfigurable Processor for Legacy Applications Code Execution (RePLACE) Emulation Technology for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Seahawk Display Generator Unit (DGU). To assess how the Australian Defence Force's (ADF's) Technical Airworthiness Authority (TAA) - the Directorate General Technical Airworthiness (DGTA) might accept emulation technology, DGTA has evaluated emulation architectures and specifically RePLACE in the context of the Seahawk DGU. The evaluation has considered the emulation architecture, including identification of risks largely unique to the technology; as well as application of ADF preferred avionics software assurance and software safety standards to this technology. Evaluation of emulation technology, through exploration of emulation architectures and RePLACE as a case study, has allowed DGTA to define certification and regulatory guidance for the development of emulation technology within the ADF context.