Xen Project gets serious about safety in push to possibly partition robot brains
Boeing quietly joins FOSS hypervisor crew, as AMD and Renesas lead new effort to comply with formal standards
The Xen Project, the open-source hypervisor, is prioritizing formal safety standards to ensure its software complies with IEC-61508, which outlines processes and practices for software in devices that could potentially harm humans. In recent years, the project has focused on making its code suitable for embedded workloads and devices like cars.
With modern vehicles relying on software for tasks such as emergency braking and infotainment systems, virtualizing workloads allows for isolation, preventing glitches in one application from affecting critical ones like collision avoidance. The Xen Project aims to make its software an even better option for such scenarios by complying with formal safety standards, enabling workload isolation in more devices, including robots.
To achieve this, the project has established a Safety Committee with AMD, EPAM, and Renesas as founding contributors. These chipmakers are keen on showcasing their expertise in a safety-certified hypervisor to manufacturers. The Xen Project has also introduced a new Premier Plus membership tier for organizations pursuing functional safety certifications.
The open-source approach aims to streamline safety engineering efforts and accelerate certification programs, making functional safety more practical for industries developing software-defined systems. Recently, Boeing joined the project, attracted by its safety work, indicating an increasing interest in secure hypervisors across various industries.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Software's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
