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Linux Foundation Launches ELISA, an Open Source Project For Building Safety-Critical Systems (venturebeat.com)
The Linux Foundation today launched Enabling Linux in Safety Applications (ELISA), an open source project comprising tools intended to help companies build and certify Linux-based systems whose failure could result in loss of human life, significant property damage, or environmental damage. From a report: In partnership with British chip designer Arm, BMW, autonomous platforms company Kuka, Linutronix, and Toyota, ELISA will work with certification and standardization bodies in "multiple industries" to establish ways Linux can form the foundation of safety-critical systems across industries.
I am not sure what this will do. To me, a "safety critical" OS like QNX, LynxOS, or INTEGRITY from Green Hills software. These are all operating systems designed from the ground up to be secure, and have defense in depth through every part of the OS, some of which even support physically unclonable functions (PUFs) on chips ensuring that there is no need for a secure enclave that can be read. All of which are also real time operating systems, which ensure that if you need to get a packet at "x" time, you will get that packet. Even Kaspersky has their own RTOS.
The problem is that people want to use the same commodity development tools in the embedded arena as they use for their web pages. This can be done, but there will be a ton of code that is possibly insecure. Developing for platforms that actually need security and reliability with a secure RTOS will take a lot more time and trouble, and today's environment of "it builds, ship it", I don't think many companies really will care to go the extra mile to actually do much about safety critical functions.