Traditionally, safety critical systems have been constructed from low volume hardware and software components specifically designed for safety critical systems. Almost all are closed systems, and the exact designs and source code are not available for analysis or comparison; we can only evaluate the reliability based on published reports of accidents attributed to the control systems. These systems typically cost into the tens of millions of dollars, and can easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, often putting them out of reach in developing countries, or taking funding away from other projects where more lives could be saved. It is the belief of the authors, that safety critical systems can be created from high volume general purpose COTS hardware and open source components and be just as reliable as traditional low volume hardware and closed source software components. We are in fact working with the light rail system in Guadalajara Mexico, and have an agreement to develop various projects, including a monitoring/signaling system using open source software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Read Full Paper (PDF Download)

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.