Systerel has a dedicated Competence Center specializing in the development of safety-critical, embedded, and real-time software.

These skills apply in particular to:

  • The design and integration of low-level software layers in complex systems
  • The development of application software subject to safety and/or security requirements
  • The industrial deployment of algorithms originally developed in research laboratories
  • The controlled evolution of existing software, including reverse-engineering processes

Safety-critical software

Safety-critical software must comply with requirements derived from safety studies.
Their development lifecycle is governed by specific regulatory and certification standards, such as EN 50128, EN 50716, DO-178, IEC 61508….

Systerel implements the processes, methods, and tools required to achieve the software integrity level mandated by applicable standards.

From a technological standpoint, this involves:

  • The use of redundant and diverse architectures such as 2oo2 or 2oo3
  • Spatial and temporal segregation mechanisms between functions with different integrity levels
  • The setup of qualified or custom development toolchains (for instance, on coded single-processor platforms)

Embedded software

Low-level layers

Systerel engineers have solid expertise in implementing low-level software components, including:

  • BSPs, drivers, and middleware
  • Layer 1 and Layer 2 communications (RS, SPI, I²C, CAN, Ethernet)
  • Industrial communication protocols (CANopen, Modbus, OPC UA, etc.)
  • Sequencing engines

Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS)

Systerel has recognized expertise in the deployment and integration of real-time operating systems.
Beyond the ability to deploy and integrate these software components, Systerel selects the most suitable RTOS according to project constraints (safety, memory footprint, cost, performance, etc.) from both open-source and commercial solutions: FreeRTOS, Zephyr, Micrium OS, QNX, Linux RT, PikeOS.

Real-Time Challenges

Systerel teams can implement hard real-time synchronous processing.

Our experts master the issues associated with RTOS implementation, such as:

  • Priority-based task scheduling
  • Task and process synchronization (IPC)
  • Performance optimization

To address memory and CPU usage bottlenecks, Systerel has the tools and expertise to instrument code for diagnostics and optimization.

This expertise also applies to the industrialization of algorithms developed by domain experts with deep knowledge of physical phenomena.
These algorithms are ported following an industrial process, with performance optimization and result verification against reference models (e.g., MATLAB).

Project references

  • Safety control of railway signaling equipment (SIL4, EN 50128)
  • Odometry functions in the railway domain
  • Implementation of Ethernet ring redundancy protocols (MRP)
  • Safety-certified train driver display unit (DMI SIL2)
  • SIL2 communication gateways for ATS systems
  • Ada development of a SIL4 interface between an RBC and a Control Center
  • Participation in firmware design for a safe, distributed, event-driven industrial PLC

Training programs

Systerel offers several technical training modules to support skills development:

– C Programming for embedded systems
– Ada Language, particularly suited for safety-critical real-time systems