Get certified and verified!

What does it really mean for IAR tools to be certified for safety-critical development? It means that the amount of work you have to do to justify the use of the tool will be greatly reduced. TUV SUD, an independent third-party organization, has evaluated IAR’s development activities, problem handling procedures, and testing and validation activities and certified IAR’s tools to comply with the requirements of IEC 61508, ISO 26262, EN 50128 and IEC 62304 safety standards. These tools include IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm, RISC-V, STM8, Renesas RX, RL78 and RH850, among others. This also means that if you choose C or C++ as your programming language, IAR’s toolchain is an excellent choice.

Continuous service

So, if you choose a certified tool, you’re done?

An important thing to also consider is the level of support you need and the level of support you can get from the tool chain. This is not limited to the project development period, but also includes the entire life cycle of the product. If a tool is old and replaced by a newer version, the tool vendor will not necessarily continue to support you on the older version of the tool. This stance runs counter to the needs of typical security-related projects, where tool updates should be avoided as much as possible.

PFVO142

If the update of a previously certified tool contains not only Bug fixes, but also feature updates, then it is not useful to accept only bug fixes because the tool update requires recertification or detailed impact analysis and testing.

Through years of working with customers who develop security-related software or services with high availability requirements, IAR has learned that support for “frozen” versions is critical. A “frozen” version refers to a version of the tool that accepts only bug fixes and never adds new features. This version can be kept active and supported as needed. In the past, IAR has tailored special partnership agreements for customers who require specific “frozen” versions and associated support services. Now, with certification, IAR has the opportunity to provide a “frozen” version and associated support services in a simplified manner to all customers using the functional security version of IAR Embedded Workbench.