Alameda, California – Northrop Grumman Corp. has selected software provider Wind River System’s VxWorks 653 platform for its helicopter digitization avionics mission equipment package to be integrated onto the Black Hawk UH-60V helicopter.
The operating system VxWorks 653 is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platform for supporting delivery of safety-critical, integrated modular avionics (IMA) applications. It provides Northrop Grumman with a DO-178C certifiable, upgradable platform that is aligned with the latest government initiatives to reduce program life cycle costs.
Wind River, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corp., recently released updates to VxWorks 653, including support for multi-core silicon and partitioning for applications that enable multilevel RTCA DO-178C certification, as well as support for the Safety Base Profile of Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) 2.1 Technical Standard.
"Fully compliant with ARINC 653, VxWorks 653 provides customers with robust partitioning in time and space to facilitate fault containment – and enables reduced size, weight, and power, as well as a reduced bill of materials, on the industry’s most advanced aircraft," said Dinyar Dastoor, vice president and general manager of operating system platforms.
"By incorporating VxWorks 653 into our mission equipment package, we have achieved a system architecture that helps protect our customers’ long term investment for multiple platforms," said Ike Song, vice president, Situational Awareness Systems at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems. "
Used in more than 325 programs by more than 185 customers on more than 70 aircraft, VxWorks 653 serves as a key technology in a wide range of commercial, military, and space safety- and mission-critical programs, both manned and unmanned, around the globe.
Source: Wind River