Incremental Assurance of Multicore Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA)

DO-297/ED-124 defines incremental acceptance as a "process for obtaining credit toward approval and certification by accepting or finding that an IMA module, application, and/or off-aircraft IMA system complies with specific requirements." However, the standard was written before the introduction of multicore processors into avionics systems. In this paper, we will examine incremental acceptance of multicore-based IMA systems, discussing how the IMA platform and each hosted partition application can be independently verified to accumulate evidence to form the overall certification package. The paper starts with an overview of IMA, partitioning, and multicore avionics. It then proposes an approach to incremental acceptance of a multicore IMA system, organized around the six tasks identified in DO-297/ED-124 for incremental acceptance. The proposed approach is based on robust partitioning mechanisms verified using multicore interference generators. The paper concludes with some additional considerations regarding scheduling, shared memory, safety nets, and commercial aspects.