Xen Project gets serious about safety in push to possibly partition robot brains

The Xen Project, a home for the open-source hypervisor, has decided to prioritize formal safety measures. This decision is not a reflection of any security issues, but rather a proactive effort to ensure compliance with safety standards like IEC-61508, which governs software used in devices and settings that could potentially harm humans.

Over the years, the project has been focusing on making its code more suitable for embedded workloads and devices such as cars. With modern vehicles relying on software for tasks ranging from emergency braking to infotainment systems, virtualizing workloads can prevent glitches in one application from affecting the performance of critical applications like collision avoidance.

To further enhance its position in such scenarios, the Xen Project aims to make its software an even more appealing option by meeting formal safety standards. The project has established a Safety Committee, with AMD, EPAM, and Renesas as its founding contributors. AMD and Renesas, chipmakers always scouting for new markets, believe that working with Xen and showcasing expertise in a safety-certified hypervisor could be advantageous in their pitch to manufacturers.

The Xen Project has also introduced a new membership tier called Premier Plus for organizations aiming for functional safety certifications. By sharing engineering evidence with the software itself, the Xen community aims to reduce redundant efforts, accelerate certification processes, and make functional safety more achievable for industries developing next-generation software-defined systems.

Boeing recently joined the project, likely due to its interest in Xen's safety initiatives. In August, the Xen Project delivered an update to its flagship hypervisor, adding support for AMD Zen 5 Bus Lock Threshold, improving Arm support, and advancing towards a fully functional release for RISC-V processors.