Enabling model-based design for DO-254 certification compliance

The increasing prevalence and cost of projects that need to comply with the DO-254 standard is forcing companies to evaluate their development processes. This white paper shows how MathWorks and Siemens EDA provide methodologies and a toolchain compliant with the standard.

Introduction & background

The increasing prevalence and cost of projects that need to comply with the DO-254 standard is forcing companies to evaluate their development processes.

This white paper shows a development approach to compliance using model-based design. It covers how a DO-254 workflow using model-based design promotes a consistent requirements-oriented project view and increases reuse of design and verification efforts through all phases of the DO-254 life cycle.

The purpose of DO-254 (formally known as RTCA/DO-254 or ED80) is to provide guidance for the development of airborne electronic hardware. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and other worldwide aviation safety authorities require this standard to ensure that complex electronic hardware used in aircraft systems works as specified under all foreseeable conditions, avoiding faulty operation and potential air disasters.

DO-254 compliance is now common on commercial and military aviation projects. However, companies often struggle with the requirements and costs of DO-254 compliance. Engineers can use model-based design for requirements analysis, algorithm design, automatic HDL code generation, and verification, to produce airborne electronic hardware that adheres to the DO- 254 standard. The model-based design approach for DO-254 combines automation tools from both MathWorks and Siemens EDA for design and verification to support a development process that goes from concept through implementation. This approach streamlines the development process and reduces costs.

Simulink, from MathWorks, is the starting point for the model-based design flow. The Simulink environment allows engineers to manage requirements, test sets, architecture and behavior modeling, formal a DO-254 workflow using model-based design promotes a consistent requirements-oriented project view and increases reuse of design and verification efforts through all phases of the DO-254 life cycle.verification, and conformance to modeling standards. Engineers can also perform HDL code generation and verification.

This approach delivers two main benefits:

• Finding and fixing errors earlier in the design process is better than finding them later, during implementation and testing.
• Designs, tests, and analyses can be reused throughout the development process and easily communicated among team members.

Siemens EDA offers industry-leading tools that span the design workflow. The tools focus on chip-level solutions for HDL design and verification. They also include capabilities for consistently managing and tracking requirements from design concept through implementation.

Model-based design promotes a requirements-oriented project view and greater integration and reusability among conceptual design, detailed design, and implementation.