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This report, based on global industry and regulatory expert experience and knowledge, illustrates only the top level of elemental aspects regarding commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components embedded in airborne electronic hardware (AEH) issues and provides possibilities for COTS AEH solutions development including: 1) the use of existing standards and guidance documents as a structure for future evolution of COTS standards, 2) possible future COTS standards to implement this structure, 3) the need for combined industry/regulatory/manufacturing research to develop COTS AEH issues mitigations, including the development of COTS standards and guidance, 4) mechanisms to shorten the slow evolution of standards, 5) a candidate structure for relevant and emerging COTS standards linked to evolving development assurance standards, and 6) the identification of standard bodies responsible for the implementation of the ongoing COTS solution(s). This report provides a COTS AEH assurance framework, including a common structured approach to evaluate COTS AEH issues. This approach is applied to the 22 issues addressed in the report and is recommended for application to future issues not addressed herein. The approach is presented in a manner that supports development of project-level COTS AEH mitigations that can be rolled into development, design assurance, and a practical compliance solution for FAA engineers, delegates, and standards administrators. There is a stand-alone treatment of each issue and a five-step suggested evolution of COTS and development assurance standards and guidelines. The research (1) includes detailed technical information about the issues, (2) introduces research required to provide new knowledge needed to implement solutions for the COTS AEH issues, (3) explores required tools, standards, and guidance needed for COTS-based systems development assurance, certification, and maintenance, and (4) considers certification-process and assessment criteria as well as methods for the given issues. The approach may be used to evaluate and develop emerging COTS AEH issues. This report also addresses design, component selection, development assurance, and certification-process issues for AEH COTS electronics product items, such as hybrids, multichip modules, microprocessors, field-programmable gate arrays, application-specific integrated circuits, and small assemblies including printed wiring assemblies and disk drives. All organizations and individuals who work with COTS AEH in avionics are encouraged to read and understand this report --and those who address these COTS AEH issues should use the AFE 75 research approach and results described.
This ARP is not a certification document; it contains no certification requirements beyond those already contained in existing certification documents. The purpose of this ARP is to provide more detailed descriptions of the 12 hardware-related COTS issues listed in Appendix B, and to provide recommendations on existing practices, processes, and methods to address them. This ARP also describes artifacts that may be used as evidence that the issues have been addressed. The recommended practices and artifacts may be used to facilitate communication between, for example, the provider and the user of the avionics systems into which COTS components are integrated, or between the applicant for certification and the certification body.This ARP does not claim that the recommended practices and artifacts described in this ARP are the only acceptable ones. They are, however, used widely today, and merit serious consideration where applicable in the avionics system design and certification processes.COTS components, by definition, typically have not been designed specifically for the aerospace applications or environments in which they will be used. In many cases, the design data for COTS components is limited or not available, compromising the ability of the integrator of the COTS components into aerospace systems to fully assess their functions and failure modes, and consequently their impact on the system performance (intended and unintended) and safety. Nevertheless, the organization that integrates COTS components into avionics systems is responsible to assure that the system is functional and airworthy.The avionics system design and development process, therefore, needs to take into account the use of COTS components, and the evidence and artifacts that are produced and used to demonstrate that the implementation satisfies the allocated requirements and provides the level of confidence, consistent with airworthiness requirements.Various methods may be considered to accomplish the above, broad categories of which include (but are not limited to): Design and conduct additional tests and analyses of the COTS component, beyond those conducted by its supplier, to assure that the COTS component will perform its allocated function reliably in its application; Modify the avionics system design to reduce operating and environmental stresses on the COTS component; Modify the avionics system design to provide assurance the system will perform its allocated function reliably, even if the COTS component were to fail; Modify the avionics system operating and maintenance practices to prevent premature failure of the avionics system; and Any additional practices needed by the application.The 12 issues addressed in this ARP are likely to be relevant for the foreseeable future; however, it also is likely that additional issues will emerge, as COTS component technology continues to progress, and as avionics system reliance on their use continues to increase. Use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic components is a necessity for airborne electronic hardware (AEH) in aerospace systems; but most COTS components are not designed or intended for long-life, safety-critical, or rugged-environment applications such as AEH. This presents challenges for the design, production, support, and certification of AEH systems. Although COTS hardware can have significant impacts on aerospace electronic system design, reliability assessment, quality, testing, production or support, there is no currently-agreed-upon method to assess those impacts in the certification process. This document describes an aerospace industry consensus process to do so, with respect to 12 specific COTS-related issues, as described in DOT/FAA/TC-16/57. For each of the 12 issues, this document contains (1) a brief description of the issue, (2) aerospace industry consensus processes to assure that the issue has been addressed adequately in the system design, and (3) acceptable artifacts to verify that the issue has been addressed adequately in the system design.
Written by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) consultant designated engineering representative (DER) and an electronics hardware design engineer who together taught the DO-254 class at the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, Inc. (RTCA) in Washington, District of Columbia, USA, Airborne Electronic Hardware Design Assurance: A Practitioner's Guide to RTCA/DO-254 is a testimony to the lessons learned and wisdom gained from many years of first-hand experience in the design, verification, and approval of airborne electronic hardware. This practical guide to the use of RTCA/DO-254 in the development of airborne electronic hardware for safety critical airborne applications: Describes how to optimize engineering processes and practices to harmonize with DO-254 Addresses the single most problematic aspect of engineering and compliance to DO-254—poorly written requirements Includes a tutorial on how to write requirements that will minimize the cost and effort of electronic design and verification Discusses the common pitfalls encountered by practitioners of DO-254, along with how those pitfalls occur and what can be done about them Settles the ongoing debate and misconceptions about the true definition of a derived requirement Promotes embracing DO-254 as the best means to achieve compliance to it, as well as the best path to high-quality electronic hardware Airborne Electronic Hardware Design Assurance: A Practitioner's Guide to RTCA/DO-254 offers real-world insight into RTCA/DO-254 and how its objectives can be satisfied. It provides engineers with valuable information that can be applied to any project to make compliance to DO-254 as easy and problem-free as possible.
This report deals with the issue of using commodity memories in avionics, explains the reasons for the concern, and investigates methods used to ensure the reliability of the data stored in commodity memories. Because of the competitive nature regarding the efforts by manufacturers to produce devices that have vast numbers (i.e., millions and possibly billions) of these memories, their quality can be suspect, and their reliability and availability are likely to be less robust. Four types of commodity memories are covered in this report: double data rate, not-AND flash, toggle magnetoresistive, and quad data rate. This report provides a brief description of the technologies, manufacturing aspects, and defect management of these memories. Confidence in commodity memories is built not only from matching their type to the domain usage in the design phase but also by actively engaging with the commodity manufacturer and distributor. For the selected commodity memories, failure modes and failure mechanisms are discussed to illustrate the concern. Failure modes in commodity memories are described by using both a black-box and a grey-box model view and applying three levels of abstraction: functional, logical, and physical. Ensuring the reliability of these commodity memories is investigated through the existing fault mitigation techniques embedded in these memories and the identification of additional internal or external fault mitigation techniques. Error correcting codes are the typical built-in mitigation technique for each of the selected commodity memory types. Issues with built-in mitigation techniques typically point to a lack of documentation or poor coverage of the Airborne Electronic Hardware usage domain. Finally, the report presents a series of recommendations to support assurance of commodity memories in avionics products.