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ELISA Summit: Generation of Static Architecture Diagrams for Specific Kernel Images (Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit, Working Group

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a session presented by Alessandro Carminati, Red Hat and Maurizio Papini, Red Hat on the topic Generation of Static Architecture Diagrams for Specific Kernel Images.”

In this talk, the experts shared how they generated a static architecture diagram of the Kernel based on radare2. To analyze the kernel for safety is challenging since it is a huge monolithic piece of code. Subsystems exist within the kernel, but they are not well defined nor documented. ISO26262 part6 requires a ‘Software architectural design specification’ that can be used to support safety analysis and drive the function of tests.

Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.

ELISA Summit: Automotive Working Group Update – Tell-tales an Evolution Use Case Towards Driver Assistance ?!(Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit, Working Group

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today we’ll feature the session by Philipp Ahmann, Robert Bosch GmbH supported by work from Paul Albertella, Codethink, and Christopher Temple, Arm on the topic Automotive Working Group Update – Tell tales an evolution use case towards driver assistance.

The session mainly covered the topics such as what is a tell tale and why is it the use case of the Automotive WG? What is STPA and advantages of it. This session gave an update on the latest activities of the Automotive Working Group status. Focus was put on the explanation why the Automotive Working Group has selected the use case of “safe displaying of warning signs on instrument cockpit” also called “telltales”. The benefits of the use case is illustrated as well. The relationship to other use cases is provided and the natural evolution to other automotive use cases like driver assistance features is shown.

Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.

To learn more about the Automotive Working Group or to join the mailing list or meetings, click here.

ELISA Summit: Linux Features for Safety – Critical Systems Working Group (Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular session presented by Elana Copperman, Mobileye/Intel about the “Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group (LFSCS).” The talk provides an overview on the working group mission statement, current focus and activities and plans for the future.

Some of the highlights of the session was about the long term goal to introduce safety mechanisms as Linux kernel patches, which can be used to support specific safety goals. 

Watch this video below to learn more and check out the presentation here.

To learn more about this working group or to join the mailing list, click here.

ELISA Summit: OSEP Working Group Update (Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular sessions presented by Paul Albertella, Codethink. In his talk, he provided an update on the work of the Open Source Engineering Process (OSEP) Working Group, including the proposal of an ‘ELISA Safety Studies Framework,’ which aims to establish and document a common framework (background, motivations, terminology, and assumptions) for the published results of all working groups.

He explained the goal behind OSEP working group is to identify processes and techniques to apply safety engineering principles for systems incorporating Linux (and other relevant open source software).

The video depicts also about the OSEP background, approach towards functional safety topics and works such as safety studies framework, stack memory analysis using STPA and many more.

Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.

To learn more about the Open Source Engineering Process (OSEP) Working Group, click here.

ELISA Summit: Useful Techniques for Qualifying a Linux Distro for ASIL-B (Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular sessions presented by Rachel Sibley, Senior Principal Software Quality Engineer at Red Hat, and Pablo Martin, Senior Software Qulaity Engineer at Red Hat on the topic “Useful Techniques for Qualifying a Linux Distro for ASIL-B“.

The session covered software testing techniques used by Red Hat to ensure a safe linux distribution targeting ASIL-B consumption. It also included traceability against requirements based coverage, code coverage approaches/frameworks to implement statement, branch, and function coverage analysis. In addition, characteristics of packages under test; instrumentation techniques, modifications for tests, and tests chosen based on the overall contribution to the coverage ratio including upstream testsuites.

Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.

ELISA Summit: Systems WG – Status and Roadmap (Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular sessions presented by Philipp Ahmann, Business Development Manager, Robert Bosch GmbH. He represents the ELISA project of the Linux Foundation as an ambassador and leads the automotive as well as systems work group.

Based on the proposal during the last ELISA virtual workshop, a new Systems Working Group was started within ELISA. During the ELISA Summit in September, Philipp gave an overview about the working group foundation, activities, ongoing projects and roadmap. He also provides a rough roadmap towards the beginning of 2023 and a first sketch on how the group can evolve over the next years.

Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.

ELISA Summit: Safety Architecture WG Update (Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on one of the most popular sessions presented by Gabriele Paoloni, Open Source Technical Leader (FuSa), Red Hat. During the session, he provided an update of the safety architecture, working group activities, including the Kernel STPA analysis in the context of the Telltale use case, and an overview of the goals for the next quarter.

Watch the video below :

For more details about the ELISA Project, visit the main website here. To learn more about the Safety Architecture Working Group or to join the community, click here.

ELISA Summit: Call for an ELISA Aerospace Working Group

By Blog, ELISA Summit

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular sessions presented by Steve VanderLeest, OS Cert Technical Lead and Matt Kelly, Chief Software Engineer, ESPC Operating Systems, from The Boeing Company, titled “Call for an ELISA Aerospace Working Group.” Steve and Matt gave an overview and proposal for a new ELSIA working group, that would be focused on aerospace. The goal is to create new use case that highlights some of the unique needs of aerospace.

Although some needs for safety-critical software are common across industries, each has unique elements. The two existing industry-focused working groups within ELISA (Automotive and Medical Devices) are formulating use cases that will influence the direction of the technically-focused working groups. While there is broad commonality of concepts and methodology across the safety-critical domains, it is likely that these use cases will miss some of the needs of aerospace. Thus a new industry-focused working group is needed, one that focuses on avionics flight software and ground equipment such as air traffic management systems.

The video depicts the proposed mandate and description of the new working group, comparing to the existing mandates for the Medical devices and Automotive working groups.

Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.

For more details about the ELISA Project, visit the main website here. To learn more about how to join the new Aerospace Working Group, click here.

ELISA Summit: Intro & Technical Strategy (Video)

By Blog, ELISA Summit

An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community, presented best practices and overviews on emerging trend and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.

We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on one of the most popular sessions presented by Kate Stewart, VP of Dependable Embedded Systems at the Linux Foundation, and Shuah Khan, Kernel Maintainer and Fellow at the Linux Foundation. They kicked off the Summit with a session titled,Welcome & Strategy,” where they gave an overview of ELISA Project and its Technical Strategy. This video is an introductory session for new comers and ELISA members that aren’t regular participants in the Working Groups.

Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.

For more details about the ELISA Project, visit the main website here. To learn more about any of the working groups or to join the community, click here.

Addressing Space Isolation for Enhanced Safety of the Linux Kernel (Video)

By Blog, Technical Update, Working Group

Written by Igor Stoppa, Senior Software Architect at Nvidia

For more than two decades, Linux has made inroad in new fields of applications, from data centres, to embedded. We see now a growing demand for Linux in safety critical applications, ranging from automotive to robotics, to medical appliances.

However, Linux was not designed with these applications in mind, and unsurprisingly it is not an ideal fit, at the moment.In particular, one major pain point is the very limited resilience to spatial interferences originating from within the kernel itself.

Furthermore, the code base if much larger than what can be found in other operating systems traditionally found in safe applications. This is also compounded by the fact that Linux does not follow the processes traditionally in use for Functional Safety.

Summary

In the video, I describe my ongoing experiment of modifying the Linux kernel, to introduce a form of Address Space Isolation, meant to provide a mechanism enforcing freedom from interference. The presentation describes the problems, possible means to address it, and the current progress with the implementation. You’ll see a methodology for the safety analysis of a Linux system and mechanism for improving the safety of selected components.

This presentation ties both into the scope of the Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group and the Critical SW track at Open Source Summit Europe. Though this work is not formally sponsored nor endorsed by ELISA, it is something I shared with the community for brainstorm and discussion purposes.

If you’d like to learn more about the Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group or you’d like to continue this conversation, please join the mailing list or a WG meeting here.