An application software download concept for safety-critical embedded platforms

Application download is a promising concept for embedded systems in safety-critical domains such as automotive. Systems could be kept up to date without maintenance visits and new business models could be developed. However, the protection of safety-critical software against applications that are not known at system design time is rarely addressed. This paper presents a concept for downloading non-safety-critical software applications into a safety-critical system. The platform´s partitioning is realized via memory, execution time, and service protection.