I don’t think we are promoting the reliability of our products well enough. In particular, a key attribute and value of VxWorks is its reliability. Being a newcomer to Wind River my colleagues here were surprised to hear that the reliability of VxWorks would have been called into question. Being on the inside, of course, I am now aware of the various proof points regarding VxWorks’ reliability:
- VxWorks has been built into over a billion devices. VxWorks has been in more devices than any other RTOS and been on the market for more than 20 years. Assuming linear growth and at least 25% of these devices are still on the market, VxWorks has over 2 Trillion (2x1012) hours in operation (that is 250 million years!)
- VxWorks is available in certified versions for FAA DO-178B, ARINC 653 and IEC 61508. These are very strict standards for safety critical systems. Unreliable is not an option.
- VxWorks is running in avionics for commercial aviation today. These products must be certified to FAA DO-178B level A, likely the most stringent safety standard in the world.
- The engineering process used at Wind River for safety certified and non-certified products are similar. We take reliability of our RTOS very seriously.
- Non-certified versions VxWorks are used in mission critical systems from industrial control and robotics to networking infrastructure. Failure in these systems have financial and safety repercussions.
- The core API is shared amongst the certified and non-certified versions of the OS. Customers can adopts safety certified versions if they need to when the regulation environment for their product changes.
- VxWorks provides the services needed to make systems reliable including memory protection and we also have development tools to debug the system and test software to assist the testing effort.
I think these proof points boil down to that fact the longevity of the product and its proven use in various markets, reliability is an absolute requirement for this success.
- VxWorks has been built into over a billion devices. VxWorks has been in more devices than any other RTOS and been on the market for more than 20 years. Assuming linear growth and at least 25% of these devices are still on the market, VxWorks has over 2 Trillion (2x1012) hours in operation (that is 250 million years!)
- VxWorks is available in certified versions for FAA DO-178B, ARINC 653 and IEC 61508. These are very strict standards for safety critical systems. Unreliable is not an option.
- VxWorks is running in avionics for commercial aviation today. These products must be certified to FAA DO-178B level A, likely the most stringent safety standard in the world.
- The engineering process used at Wind River for safety certified and non-certified products are similar. We take reliability of our RTOS very seriously.
- Non-certified versions VxWorks are used in mission critical systems from industrial control and robotics to networking infrastructure. Failure in these systems have financial and safety repercussions.
- The core API is shared amongst the certified and non-certified versions of the OS. Customers can adopts safety certified versions if they need to when the regulation environment for their product changes.
- VxWorks provides the services needed to make systems reliable including memory protection and we also have development tools to debug the system and test software to assist the testing effort.
Bill Graham is the product marketing manager for VxWorks platforms at Wind River. He has over 20 years of experience in the software industry, including embedded and real-time systems development, UML modeling, and object-oriented design. Prior to joining Wind River, Bill held marketing and product management positions at QNX, IBM Rational, and Klocwork. Prior to his career in marketing, Bill was a software engineer at ObjecTime, Cross Keys and Lockheed Martin. Bill holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
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