Achieving Quality and Traceability in FPGA/ASIC Flows for DO-254 Aviation Projects

With the recent FAA/EASA mandate, companies providing flight hardware for commercial aviation systems now must build their complex electronic hardware components (i.e., ASIC/FPGA) to the standard known as DO-254. Focusing on design assurance (including quality, traceability, and strict configuration management), the DO- 254 standard can have a profound impact on a company's development processes and design flows. Many companies are struggling to understand the standard and are expending additional development resources (i.e., time and money) to achieve the targeted certification levels for their hardware. This session discusses the application of advanced methodologies and integrated tool flows for ASIC/FPGA design and verification, showing how to implement a high- quality flow that provides the required assurance while maintaining cost and schedules. A brief overview of DO- 254 and the topic of tool qualification is also included.