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Red Hat Reaches Key Milestone in Push to Functional Safety Certification
January 08, 2025
Functional safety certification of mixed criticality moves Red Hat closer to ISO 26262 compliance and further reinforces Linux as the path forward for software-defined vehicle innovation
Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the achievement of functional safety certification of mixed criticality; a key group of subsystems within Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, marking another critical step towards ISO 26262 Automotive Safety Integrity Level B (ASIL-B) functional safety certification of the operating system. This milestone underscores Red Hat’s commitment to delivering innovative and native Linux functional safety for road vehicles.
Mixed criticality demonstrates the platform’s ability to run Automotive Safety Integrity Level B (ASIL-B) applications alongside Quality Management (QM) software on a single system-on-chip (SoC) and a single operating system. This breakthrough is made possible through robust evidence of “Freedom From Interference” (FFI) across the operating system's layers, setting the stage for a straightforward integration of safety-critical and non-safety applications in next-generation automotive systems.
In collaboration with exida, Red Hat has developed and validated a novel approach to meet the objectives of functional safety standards including ISO 26262, and one that is intended to overcome the challenges associated with complex, pre-existing open source software.
“Red Hat’s achievement in functional safety certification marks a significant advancement for the automotive industry. For our ETAS Middleware Solution, it’s crucial that the underlying operating system offers dependable safety features," says Jonathan Moore, director, Advanced Systems, exida. "This simplifies the creation of safety-critical functions and accelerates development exponentially by enabling seamless integration of safety-critical and non-safety applications. This milestone strengthens Linux as a trusted platform for software-defined vehicles and aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver advanced automotive software solutions.”
This is a significant milestone that comes after Red Hat announced that the Linux math library, a fundamental component of Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, achieved ISO 26262 ASIL-B functional safety certification from exida and strengthens the confidence in Linux as a viable platform of choice for safety related automotive applications of the future. Red Hat has demonstrated that the required mixed criticality configuration can reliably meet ASIL-B requirements. This certification not only helps validate the safety of Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System but also provides a clear path for customers to deploy it with greater confidence in future automotive systems.