DornerWorks selects DDC-I’s Deos RTOS to Host Time Sensitive Networking IP (TSN IP) Mission-Critical Avionics Software

Phoenix, AZ. May 31, 2023.  DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission and safety-critical applications, today announced that DornerWorks, a leading engineering firm specializing in advanced Ethernet networking solutions, has selected DDC-I’s Deos™ DO-178C RTOS to host its Time Sensitive Networking IP (TSN IP) mission-critical networking software. The integrated software, which runs on North Atlantic Industries’ ruggedized OpenVPX SIU34 Sensor Interface Unit, is the industry’s first-ever mission-critical TSN solution that meets the highest standards of reliability and determinism for the defense and aerospace industries.

The DornerWorks TSN IP provides guaranteed and predictable end-to-end latency, bandwidth, and quality of service (QoS) for time-sensitive applications over Ethernet. Together with Deos, the DornerWorks TSN IP provides a robust and reliable Ethernet networking solution that delivers enhanced time synchronization, time scheduling, and frame-preemption features for guaranteed performance, increased system efficiency, and defense-class security.

“We’re excited to be working with DornerWorks to deliver a deterministic, high-performance, mission-critical, multicore Ethernet solution,” said Greg Rose, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at DDC-I. “The partnership brings together best-in-class RTOS and networking technologies on an integrated NAI COSA platform that is unparalleled in the aerospace and defense markets.”

“In the fast-paced world of aerospace and defense, the need for reliable, efficient Ethernet networking is paramount,” added David Johnson, FPGA Engineering Group Manager at DornerWorks. “Deos features like cache partitioning, memory pools, and multicore safe scheduling enable us to deliver our mission-critical TSN IP Ethernet networking capability in a way that maximizes performance without compromising determinism and safety criticality.”

Deos is a safety-critical embedded RTOS that employs patented cache partitioning, memory pools, and safe scheduling to deliver higher CPU utilization than any other certifiable safety-critical COTS RTOS on multi-core processors. First certified to DO-178 DAL A in 1998, Deos provides certified conformant FACE OSS Safety Base and Safety Extended Profiles that feature hard real-time response, time and space partitioning, with support for Rate Monotonic, ARINC-653 and POSIX interfaces. 

SafeMC technology extends Deos’ advanced capabilities to multiple cores, enabling developers of safety-critical systems to achieve best in class multi-core performance without compromising safety critical task response and guaranteed execution time. SafeMC employs a bound multiprocessing (BMP) extension of the symmetric multiprocessing architecture (SMP), safe scheduling, and cache partitioning to minimize cross-core contention and interference patterns that affect the performance, safety criticality and certifiability of multi-core systems. These features enable avionics systems developers to address issues that could impact the safety, performance and integrity of a software airborne system as specified by the Certification Authorities Software Team (CAST). 

DornerWorks TSN Ethernet IP enables the digital backbone for modern sensor systems with simple, plug-and-play interoperability that helps development teams meet Department of Defense (DoD) compliance. DornerWorks TSN Ethernet IP was developed on AMD Zynq UltraScale+ FPGAs, allowing for a mix of software and custom logic in the design process. Time synchronization and traffic scheduling is handled in the FPGA logic portion of the DornerWorks TSN solution, ensuring that messages arrive on time and as scheduled with low latency on mission-critical COTS hardware. Deos helps to provide multi-core, secure software for configuration and control of the FPGA IP, in addition to user applications to send and receive data from the network. The full TSN solution enables support for multiple types of heterogeneous traffic over a common network to reduce infrastructure costs while maintaining high security and reliability.

NAI’s rugged, highly configurable 3U OpenVPX, SIU34 Sensor Interface Unit for SWaP-optimized avionics applications such as aircraft interface units that require high-density I/O, communications, Ethernet switching and processing. Leveraging NAI’s family of 3U OpenVPX™ boards, the SIU34 provides four OpenVPX card slots, is available with a variety of PowerPC, Intel and ARM processor options, can be configured with up to 12 I/O and communication function modules to accelerate the deployment of avionics systems, and supports the MOSA, OSA, SOSA™ and FACE™ technical standards.

About DDC-I, Inc.

DDC-I, Inc. is a global supplier of real-time operating systems, software development tools, custom software development services, and legacy software system modernization solutions, with a primary focus on mission and safety critical applications. DDC-I’s customer base is an impressive “who’s who” in the commercial, military, aerospace, and safety-critical industries. DDC-I offers safety critical real-time operating systems, compilers, integrated development environments and run-time systems for C, C++, and Ada application development. For more information regarding DDC-I products, contact DDC-I at 4545 E. Shea Blvd, Phoenix, AZ 85028; phone (602) 275-7172; fax (602) 252-6054; e-mail sales@ddci.com or visit https://www.ddci.com/pr2306.

About DornerWorks

DornerWorks provides technology engineering so you can focus on your customers. With embedded electronics, FPGA, and software engineering expertise, we accelerate your product development and lower risk for adopting advanced technologies. One of our specialties is time-sensitive networking. DornerWorks is also a performer on a number of SBIR contracts, developing cybersecurity, open architecture, and other enabling technologies for the Department of Defense. For more information, visit DornerWorks.com.