The QNX® OS for Safety has been certified to IEC 61508 at Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL 3). It provides a certified platform on which application developers can build safety critical systems that must meet the most stringent functional safety requirements.
QNX OS for Safety 1.0 is based on QNX SDP 6.5.0, and contains the following components:
- Safe Kernel binaries (Neutrino kernel with APS and multicore support)
- IEC 61508 SIL 3 certificate (facsimile)
- Certification summary report
- QNX Neutrino RTOS Safe Kernel Safety Manual
- Installing and Using the QNX Neutrino RTOS Safe Kernel (user guide)
The QNX OS for Safety is supported on multiple hardware platforms, including x86, Power and ARM with multi-core capabilities through SMP.
Functional safety management
Functional safety management is the "language" that connects safety-related applications.
Benefits
The QNX OS for Safety incorporates many key characteristics required of an IEC 61508 SIL 3 certified system. These include:
- Design safe state — a well-defined state to which the kernel reverts when it encounters a situation that it cannot handle
- Isolation — separation between application processes, and between applications processes and the kernel itself
- Scheduling predictability — guaranteed processor resources according to thread priorities, assurance against "lazy" resource allocations, and scheduling analysis through techniques such as deadline and rate monotonic scheduling
IEC 61508
IEC 61508 codifies practices and standards associated, not only with the production of code for mission- and safety- critical systems, but also with the resulting product. IEC 61508 provides recommendations or requirements for:
- Processes to be applied during the development lifecycle of software used in critical applications
- Techniques and tools to be applied to the software
- Target failure measures for systems acting in low demand, high demand or continuous mode