Mentor Graphics Announces Nucleus RTOS Safety Critical Certification

Meets safety and reliability regulations for industrial equipment, medical devices and airborne systems

WILSONVILLE, Ore. -- April 6, 2015 -- Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced the new Nucleus SafetyCert real time operating system (RTOS), targeting high-performance, next-generation applications for embedded devices designed to meet safety and reliability regulatory requirements for industrial, medical, and airborne systems. Running in more than 3 billion devices, the high-performance and highly scalable Nucleus RTOS has been verified and documented by Verocel, Inc., a leading independent safety-critical software verification company. The Nucleus SafetyCert RTOS meets the stringent certification requirements for device manufacturers developing safety-related software for products requiring IEC 61508 SIL 3, IEC 62304 Class C, or RTCA DO-178C Level A safety certification.

Growth in safety-critical embedded devices requiring highly reliable software, plus the need to meet increased scrutiny from regulatory agencies, is placing greater demands on software developers. Costs for safety certification are rapidly increasing and device software complexity is expanding for mission-critical devices due to increased connectivity and middleware components, and rich graphic user interfaces. The Nucleus SafetyCert RTOS is a cost effective safety-certifiable solution that includes a certified version of Nucleus RTOS with a process model that supports space partitioning, run-time libraries, connectivity, networking, data storage and the Sourcery CodeBench Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

The Nucleus SafetyCert RTOS has been designed, validated and documented to be used in the development of safety-related software for the highest safety integrity levels of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards 61508 and 62304 for industrial and medical devices, and for avionics devices requiring the highest levels of DO-178C certification. The Nucleus SafetyCert RTOS reduces risk for software developers by providing the complete certification package required to successfully navigate through the regulatory approval process.

Mixed Criticality

Cost-reduction requirements are driving the need to consolidate functionality which increasingly entails combining safety-critical applications with non-critical applications. The historical approach of using separate hardware modules to isolate safety-certified applications from non-certified applications is burdened with drawbacks that include increased bill of material (BOM) costs, weight, testing, heat, and power consumption. Today’s modern high-performance processors allow software developers to consolidate components onto a single system. The Nucleus SafetyCert RTOS with a certified process model is a lightweight solution that leverages modern processors for single chip mixed-criticality architectures.

Utilizing the memory management unit without virtualizing memory, the Nucleus RTOS safety certification provides a low overhead approach to create space partitions that safely isolates mission critical certified applications from non-safety applications on a single processor or SOC. With the Nucleus SafetyCert RTOS, costs are reduced by certifying only the safety-critical software components in devices with mixed-criticality components to meet the IEC 61508 and 62304 requirements for safety assurance.

Commentary

Verocel, Inc. is a global company that provides independent software verification to safety-critical industries, such as avionics, nuclear and railway. The company helped develop the FAA guidance for reverse engineering materials for existing software products to meet DO-178B/C requirements and is an established expert in evaluating and generating evidence to meet such safety standards.

“We conducted thorough code reviews, analysis, testing and generated full traceability mapping between related life-cycle artifacts for the Nucleus SafetyCert RTOS to validate it is certifiable for devices requiring regulatory approval to meet these safety standards,” stated George Romanski, president and CEO of Verocel, Inc. “Software architects can leverage the process model in Nucleus SafetyCert for both mixed-criticality systems and for embedded safety-critical applications requiring the additional reliability provided by protected memory space partitioning.”

“Mentor’s mission is to provide our customers with proven and reliable embedded solutions that mitigate risk and enhance productivity,” stated Scot Morrison, general manager of runtime solutions, Mentor Graphics Embedded Systems Division. “Nucleus is the industry’s most widely deployed RTOS, so with Verocel’s rigorous certification approval, customers can develop safety-critical applications with greater confidence.”

About Mentor Embedded

The Mentor Graphics Embedded Systems Division enables embedded development for a variety of applications including automotive, industrial, smart energy, medical devices, and consumer electronics. Embedded developers can create systems with the latest processors and micro-controllers with commercially supported and customizable Linux®-based solutions including the industry-leading Sourcery CodeBench and Mentor® Embedded Linux products. For real-time systems, developers can take advantage of the small-foot-print and low-power-capable Nucleus RTOS. For more information, visit www.mentor.com/embedded

About Mentor Graphics

Mentor Graphics Corporation is a world leader in electronic hardware and software design solutions, providing products, consulting services and award-winning support for the world's most successful electronic, semiconductor and systems companies. Established in 1981, the company reported revenues in the last fiscal year in excess of $1.24 billion. Corporate headquarters are located at 8005 S.W. Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, Oregon 97070-7777.