Hardware Certification for Safety-Critical Real-Time Systems

This paper discusses issues related to the RTCA document DO-254 Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware and its consequences for hardware certification. In particular, problems related to circuits’ compliance with DO-254 in avionics and other industries are considered. Extensive literature review of the subject is given, including current views on and experiences with qualification of hardware design tools. Some results of the authors’ own study on tool qualification are presented.