In the United States, airline manufacturers work closely with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and their Designated Engineering Representatives (DERs) to ensure their systems meet the high level of safety required for DO-178C and related standards.

These standards regulate entire systems that go into aircraft rather than sub-systems. These regulations affect third-party software designed to fulfill safety functions in aircraft.

Software components are designed and developed to meet the stringent requirements of DO-178C. Additionally, software suppliers may be required to meet additional standards expected by the DERs and others.

As open-source software components become more important in avionic applications, they require expertise to ensure safe use.

A similar or identical regulatory approach is used for the safety certification of aeronautical software systems in most other countries. For example, EUROCAE ED-12B documentation is the same used for DO-178C in the European Union.

As a trusted supplier to aeronautic OEMs and their suppliers, Siemens Embedded provides products, services, and expertise that support these stringent aerospace regulatory requirements, and we help manufacturers navigate through this exacting process.