Autonomous flight developer Merlin has adopted Green Hills’ INTEGRITY RTOS for its autonomous flight solution. Green Hills INTEGRITY-178 tuMP will run on the PU-3000 multicore avionics computer from CMC Electronics, which will host the flight control software.

Merlin selected the PU-3000 running INTEGRITY-178 tuMP because it has the multicore processing power, diverse interfaces, and civil certification pedigree needed for its definitive autonomy system. The PU-3000 was the first multicore avionics computer to receive TSO authorisation by meeting DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore objectives to the highest Design Assurance Level (DAL A).

Last year Merlin announced a $105M Series B and signed a partnership with the US Air Force to make the C-130J transport aircraft more autonomous in order to enhance safety and its operational flexibility.

“Green Hills Software is excited to be part of Merlin’s solution for autonomous flight technology in fixed-wing aircraft, including for the C-130J,” said Dan O’Dowd, founder and CEO of Green Hills Software. “Safe and correct operation is paramount for autonomous flight operations, and the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS has an unrivalled capability and pedigree in systems meeting DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore objectives.”

INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is a multicore RTOS with support for running a multi-threaded DAL A application across multiple processor cores in symmetric multi-processing (SMP) or bound multi-processing (BMP) configurations, as well as supporting the more basic asymmetric multi-processing (AMP).