News & Press

Merlin Selects INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS for Autonomous Flight Solution

SANTA BARBARA, CA — March 29, 2023 — Green Hills Software announced today that Merlin, the leading developer of safe autonomous flight technology for fixed-wing aircraft, has selected the INTEGRITY^®-178 tuMP™ safety-critical real-time operating system (RTOS) for its autonomous flight solution. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP will run on the PU-3000 multicore avionics computer from CMC Electronics, which will host the flight control software that enables autonomous flying.

Merlin selected the PU-3000 running INTEGRITY-178 tuMP because it has the multicore processing power, diverse interfaces, and civil certification pedigree needed for its definitive autonomy system. The PU-3000 was the first multicore avionics computer to receive TSO authorization by meeting DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore objectives to the highest Design Assurance Level (DAL A).

Last year Merlin announced a $105M Series B and signed a partnership with the US Air Force to make the C-130J transport aircraft more autonomous in order to enhance safety and its operational flexibility.

“Green Hills Software is excited to be part of Merlin's solution for autonomous flight technology in fixed-wing aircraft, including for the C-130J,” said Dan O'Dowd, founder and CEO of Green Hills Software. “Safe and correct operation is paramount for autonomous flight operations, and the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS has an unrivaled capability and pedigree in systems meeting DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore objectives.”

The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP safety-critical RTOS from Green Hills Software is the only operating system to be part of a successful multicore certification to DO-178C and CAST-32A objectives. INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is a multicore RTOS with support for running a multi-threaded DAL A application across multiple processor cores in symmetric multi-processing (SMP) or bound multi-processing (BMP) configurations, as well as supporting the more basic asymmetric multi-processing (AMP). INTEGRITY-178 tuMP was the first RTOS to be certified conformant to the FACE Technical Standard, edition 3.0, and it is the only RTOS with multicore interference mitigation for all shared resources, enabling the system integrator to meet CAST-32A objectives. Multicore interference happens when more than one processor core attempts simultaneous access to a shared resource, such as system memory, I/O, or the on-chip interconnect. To further ease compliance to CAST-32A, Green Hills provides bandwidth allocation and monitoring (BAM) functionality in INTEGRITY-178 tuMP that ensures that critical applications get their allocated access to shared resources in order to meet their required deadlines, significantly lowering integration and certification risk. Together, the flexible multi-processing architecture and multicore interference mitigation enable a system integrator to maximize multicore processor performance while meeting safety and security requirements.

About Green Hills Software
Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software is the worldwide leader in embedded safety and security. In 2008, the Green Hills INTEGRITY-178 RTOS was the first and only operating system to be certified by NIAP (National Information Assurance Partnership comprised of NSA & NIST) to EAL 6+, High Robustness, the highest level of security ever achieved for any software product. Our open architecture integrated development solutions address deeply embedded, absolute security and high-reliability applications for the military/avionics, medical, industrial, automotive, networking, consumer and other markets that demand industry-certified solutions. Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, with European headquarters in the United Kingdom. Visit Green Hills Software at https://www.ghs.com.

Green Hills, the Green Hills logo, INTEGRITY and tuMP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Green Hills Software in the U.S. and/or internationally. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.