Hallo everybody,
I am a PhD student and want to do research in the topic of DAL A/B certification of microcontroller based avionic systems.
Objective:
Provide more helpful guidance for development of avionic system where a big portion of functions could be mapped to a COTS microcontroller.
Motivation:
The market share of general purpose microprocessores are shrinking. Microcontrollers have to be considered as a candidate for avioincs.
In order to get a feeling about the current usage of microcontrollers in DAL A/B avionic systems I would like to ask the avionic community about their experience.
We can get in a more detailed discussion if you are interested.
I am happy to read your comments.
Best wishes,
Andreas
What is DAL A/B ? 
LeSving wrote:
What is DAL A/B ?
Design Assurance Level. A is catastrophic, B is hazardous.
DAL = Design Assurance Level
For avionics, DO-254 stated development process that is a means of compliance to develop certifyable products that are compliant with airworthiness requirements.
DAL is also defined in context of DO-254 as described:
QuoteThere are five levels of compliance, A through E, which depend on the effect a failure of the hardware will have on the operation of the aircraft. Level A is the most stringent, defined as “catastrophic” (e.g. loss of the aircraft), while a failure of Level E hardware will not affect the safety of the aircraft. Meeting Level A compliance for complex electronic hardware requires a much higher level of verification and validation than Level E compliance.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DO-254
So I talk not about avionics for cabinet or comfort systems but rather about highly safety-critical systems like a flight control computer.
Andreas wrote:
So I talk not about avionics for cabinet or comfort systems but rather about highly safety-critical systems like a flight control computer.
I think this is the wrong place to get usefull feedback for your project. This forum is a group of end-user basically. It would be better to contact Aircraft Electronics Association This is an active organisation which represents most avionics manufacturers and avionics shops.
What is COTS?
@Jesse: Thank you for your advice.
So if somebody have also other tips about the right platform to discuss such topics feel free to post.
@Jan_Olieslagers: It is a abbreviation for Commercial off-the-shelf means standard products developed for a high volume market. More information see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_off-the-shelf
Peter wrote:
Commercial off the shelf.
Or: Crap off the shelf (in some cases!)
@T/S: be aware that this forum is about general aviation, i.e. small and even very small aircraft. Very small planes often are surprisingly simple, some have no electrics at all, perhaps carrying a battery powered monochrome GPS. My own plane has a radio and (sometimes ;) ) a transponder, but nothing else electronic. It can and has been flown without any electric circuit at all, in perfect safety.
There are however a good many projects around, creating GPS, EFIS, and more on very low cost standard hardware, like the Raspberry PI.
