Leonardo selects Wind River VxWorks to deliver software-defined advancements for Aerospace and Defense safety system

Wind River, a global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge, today announced that Leonardo, one of the world’s leading players in the aerospace, defense, and security sector, has selected VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) to deliver software-defined advancements for its state-of-the-art safety-related radio frequency (RF) system on multicore processor architectures.

To address the challenge of using different multi-core processor architectures for individual system functions within the Leonardo RF system, the company is using VxWorks to provide a common application runtime environment across processor architectures. Leonardo is developing applications to run on VxWorks and will undergo DO-178C DAL C certification.

“As multi-core processors drive an increasingly software-defined world, new opportunities are emerging to advance aerospace and defense systems,” said Jay Bellissimo, president, Wind River. “VxWorks delivers unrivaled deterministic high performance, setting the standard for a scalable, safe, secure, and reliable operating environment for mission-critical computing. Together with Leonardo, we can help companies navigate a shifting technology landscape—extending the performance and lifespan of their systems while reducing program and certification risk.”

VxWorks provides flexible single-core and multi-core support on different architectures, enabling individual systems to be configured depending on application performance requirements and safety certification requirements. Proven in the most challenging safety-critical applications, Wind River technology makes it easier and more cost-effective for organizations to meet the stringent safety certification requirements of EN 50128, IEC 61508, ISO 26262 and DO-178C / ED-12C.

The first and only commercial RTOS to support Open Container Initiative (OCI)–compliant containers, VxWorks OCI container implementation uses a lightweight minimal footprint combined with VxWorks Real-Time Processes (RTP). This enables the development of containerized applications on VxWorks and can enable Leonardo to rapidly deploy new software-defined capabilities.

Leonardo is one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in Europe, investing in innovation within industry, academia and government in capability areas including data and artificial intelligence, sensing and protection, electronic warfare, future aviation, uncrewed systems, and space.

With technology proven in over 750 safety programs in more than 120 civilian and military aircraft, Wind River is driving the transition to software-defined systems in aerospace and defense.