Logicircuit Offers Comprehensive Portfolio of DO-254 Certifiable IP

Answering the call for improved productivity and reduced cost in the development of complex airborne electronic hardware, Logicircuit, Inc. announces an extensive, and growing, catalog of soft IP targeting DO-254 compliant designs.

ALPHARETTA, GA -- August 01, 2013 -- Logicircuit, a leading DO-254 services company, today announced the availability of the industry’s most extensive DO-254 certifiable intellectual property (IP) portfolio, headlined by the Xilinx MicroBlaze™ soft processor and a number of its commonly used peripherals. This effort is the first of its kind to offer a configurable soft processor along with a set of peripheral IP, modified for DO-254 compliance and packaged with the certification artifacts and documented processes required for DO-254 targeted programs. As announced in March, Logicircuit is a Xilinx Alliance Member, supporting this product offering on Xilinx’s 7 Series FPGAs and Zynq® All Programmable System on a Chip (SoC), as well as the Spartan-6 FPGAs.

Logicircuit, an expert company focusing exclusively on DO-254 and DO-178B compliance, works closely with IP providers, gaining access to the IP source under an NDA agreement to fill a gap in performing the required certification process on the IP, and ultimately supporting resale of the certifiable IP data packages for the wider avionics customer base. The IP is verified extensively and modified only as necessary to achieve compliance, ensuring full requirements traceability and verification with no unused functionality within the IP cores. Documentation of the compliance process is captured as part of the Certification Data Packet (CDP) that Logicircuit offers to its customers. The end user (i.e., DO-254 applicant) then receives the encrypted IP along with the CDP, which offers proof of compliance to the DO-254 standard.

"Logicircuit is establishing a hardware reuse methodology that is synergistic with the established approach for reusable software components defined in AC20-148," said Tammy Reeve, President of Patmos Engineering Services and FAA-Designated Engineering Representative. "The certification data packs provided by Logicircuit will help the DO-254 applicant finally leverage the productivity gains of using IP and still meet DO-254 compliance for that logic. And by following a process similar to software, it is straightforward for the certification community to understand and accept this complementary hardware process."

"We’ve been in the services business for years, helping our customers with knowledge or resource gaps as they strive to comply with DO-254," said Joe Goode, President of Logicircuit. "Now we are excited to take this expertise and help solve the IP challenge. Our independence and DO-254 expertise help both IP providers, such as Xilinx, and IP users with their certification needs, and we can do this in a very cost-effective way for all parties involved. This is a big productivity win for the industry."

"L-3 and Logicircuit have had a close working relationship for many years, together delivering numerous successful DAL A, B and C programs," said Tom Martin, Sr. Director of Electrical Engineering at L-3 Display Systems. "And we are starting to take advantage of the Logicircuit DO-254 certifiable IP on several of our current projects."

Logicircuit is also working with several other IP suppliers, such as Great River, Zipcores and others, to offer compliant versions of common IP. Logicircuit plans to continue progressing and growing its offering of DO-254 compliant IP, and discussions with other potential IP vendor partners are underway.

DO-254 is the standard that covers "Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware" mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and other worldwide certification authorities. It requires strict processes to be followed during the development and testing of all electronics with safety-critical functions on commercial aircraft. Until now, there has not been a way to certify COTS "soft" IP. COTS soft IP commonly refers to reusable and configurable design components, which are developed and sold as a commercial offering to the general market, supporting flexible implementation in the end-user’s design. COTS soft IP is difficult to certify because the IP provider does not typically release the design source but only an encrypted format, while the applicant, or user of the IP, would be required to do extensive, white-box analysis of the source to be in compliance with the standard for the DAL A and B applications. The LogiCircuit certifiable process and CDP overcome these challenges.

About Logicircuit

Logicircuit, Inc. is a leader in the DO-254/DO-178B market, providing avionics suppliers with process and efficiency support through their skilled team of service professionals and portfolio of IP products. Established in 2000, the company of over 20 “DO-focused” engineers serves the worldwide market while providing all certification-related work onshore at their USA headquarters (6758 Jamestown Drive, Alpharetta, GA 30005).