Lynx Software Technologies, Inc. (formerly LynuxWorks) is a

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

software company founded in 1988. Lynx specializes in secure virtualization and open, reliable, certifiable real-time operating systems (

RTOS A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which m ...

es). Originally known as Lynx Real-Time Systems, the company changed its name to LynuxWorks in 2000 after acquiring, and merging with, ISDCorp (Integrated Software & Devices Corporation), an embedded systems company with a strong

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

background. In May 2014, the company changed its name to Lynx Software Technologies. Over 30 years of processor evolution, Lynx has crafted and adapted platform architectures for builders of safety- and security-critical software systems. Lynx embraced open standards from its inception, with its original

LynxOS The LynxOS RTOS is a Unix-like real-time operating system from Lynx Software Technologies (formerly "LynuxWorks"). Sometimes known as the Lynx Operating System, LynxOS features full POSIX conformance and, more recently, Linux compatibility. Lyn ...

, featuring a

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

-like user model and standard

POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines both the system- and user-level application programming interf ...

interfaces to embedded developers. LynxOS-178 is developed and certified to the distinguished FAA

DO-178C DO-178C, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is the primary document by which the certification authorities such as FAA, EASA and Transport Canada approve all commercial software-based aerospace systems. The do ...

DAL A safety standard and received the first and only FAA Reusable Software Component certificate for an RTOS. It supports ARINC API and FACE standards. Lynx has created technology that has been deployed in thousands of designs and millions of products made by leading communications, industrial, transportation, avionics, aerospace/defense and consumer electronics companies. In 1989,

, the company's flagship RTOS, was selected for use in the NASA/IBM

Space Station Freedom Space Station ''Freedom'' was a NASA project to construct a permanently crewed Earth-orbiting space station in the 1980s. Although approved by then-president Ronald Reagan and announced in the 1984 State of the Union address, ''Freedom'' wa ...

project. Lynx Software Technologies operating systems are also used in medical, industrial and communications systems around the world. In early 2020, Lynx announced that the TR3 modernization program for the

joint strike fighter Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is a development and acquisition program intended to replace a wide range of existing fighter, strike, and ground attack aircraft for the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands ...

had adopted Lynx’s LYNX MOSA.ic software development framework. The F-35 Lightning II Program (also known as the Joint Strike Fighter Program) is the US Department of Defense's focal point for defining affordable next generation strike aircraft weapon systems It is intended to replace a wide range of existing fighter, strike, and ground attack aircraft for the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and their allies. After a competition between the Boeing X-32 and the Lockheed Martin X-35, a final design was chosen based on the X-35. This is the F-35 Lightning II, which will replace various tactical aircraft. The company’s technology is also used in medical, industrial and communications systems around the world by companies like

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...

, Bosch, Denso, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin,

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

, Rohde and Schwartz and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Operating system evolution and history

is the company's real-time operating system. It is UNIX-compatible and

-compliant. It features predictable worst-case response time, preemptive scheduling, real-time priorities, ROMable kernel, and memory locking. LynxOS 7.0 is marketed as a "military grade", general purpose multi-core hard real-time operating system, and is intended for developers to embed security features during the design process, rather than adding security features after development. LynxOS and LynxOS-178 have been deployed in millions of safety-critical applications worldwide, including multiple military and aerospace systems. In 2003, the company introduced the LynxOS-178

real-time operating system A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which m ...

, a specialized version of LynxOS geared toward avionics applications that require certification to industry standards such as

DO-178B DO-178B, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is a guideline dealing with the safety of safety-critical software used in certain airborne systems. It was jointly developed by the safety-critical working group RT ...

. LynxOS-178 is a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) RTOS that fully satisfies the objectives of the DO-178B level A specification and meets requirements for Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) developers. LynxOS-178 is a native POSIX, hard real-time partitioning operating system developed and certified to FAA DO-178B/C DAL A safety standards. It is the only Commercial-off-the-Shelf ( COTS) OS to be awarded a Reusable Software Component (RSC) certificate from the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

for re-usability in DO-178B/C certification projects. LynxOS-178 is the primary host for real-time POSIX and FACE applications within the

LYNX MOSA.ic Lynx Software Technologies, Inc. (formerly LynuxWorks) is a San Jose, California software company founded in 1988. Lynx specializes in secure virtualization and open, reliable, certifiable real-time operating systems (RTOSes). Originally known as ...

development and integration framework. LynxOS-178 satisfies the PSE 53/54 profiles for both dedicated and multi-purpose real-time as well as

FACE The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may aff ...

applications. The

LynxSecure LynxSecure is a least privilege real-time separation kernel hypervisor from Lynx Software Technologies designed for safety and security critical applications found in military, avionic, industrial, and automotive markets. Overview Leveraging mu ...

Hypervisor A hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor, VMM, or virtualizer) is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is calle ...

("bare metal," type 1) and

separation kernel A separation kernel is a type of security kernel used to simulate a distributed environment. The concept was introduced by John Rushby in a 1981 paper.John Rushby, "The Design and Verification of Secure Systems," Eighth ACM Symposium on Operating ...

was released in 2005. Within the LYNX MOSA.ic development framework, it acts as a programmable processor partitioning system leveraging hardware virtualization capabilities of modern multi-core processors to isolate computing resources. In February 2019, Lynx announced LYNX MOSA.ic (pronounced “mosaic”). LYNX MOSA.ic is a software development framework for rapidly building security- and safety-critical software systems out of independent application modules. Designed to deliver on the vision of the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA),its focus is to enable developers to collapse existing development cycles to create, certify, and deploy robust, secure platforms for manned and unmanned autonomous systems. Lynx Software Technologies' patents on LynxOS technology include patent #5,469,571, "Operating System Architecture using Multiple Priority Light Weight kernel Task-based Interrupt Handling," November 21, 1995, and patent #5,594,903, "Operating System architecture with reserved memory space resident program code identified in file system name space," January 14, 1997.

LYNX MOSA.ic

A modular software development framework, the framework allows developers to design and integrate multi-core safety and security systems for industries such as the

avionics Avionics (a blend word, blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, ...

, industrial, automotive, and

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

/satellite industries.

Features

There are three LYNX MOSA.ic bundles used for building secure applications. These bundles include: LYNX MOSA.ic for Avionics, LYNX MOSA.ic for Industrial, and LYNX MOSA.ic for UAVs/Satellites. These bundles are referred to as the "Mission Critical Edge," as they focus on security. There are differences between these bundles' features, such as LYNX MOSAI.ic for Industrial's support for

Azure Azure may refer to: Colour * Azure (color), a hue of blue ** Azure (heraldry) ** Shades of azure, shades and variations Arts and media * ''Azure'' (Art Farmer and Fritz Pauer album), 1987 * Azure (Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell album), 2013 ...

IoT Edge and

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

and LYNX MOSA.ic for Avionics' support for Arm and x86 processor architectures. LYNX MOSA.ic is built on Lynx Software Technologies'

hypervisor A hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor, VMM, or virtualizer) is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is calle ...

, which helps isolate applications and manage critical system assets. LYNX MOSA.ic supports

-178,

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, and third-party OS systems. LYNX MOSA.ic also has support for bare metal applications such as Lynx Simple Applications (LSA). LYNX MOSA.ic's use of multi-core processors supports hardware virtualization. LYNX MOSA.ic's modular structure allows users to isolate computing resources into self-managed independent environments. The platform provides users with development tools for each specific environment's level of complexity.

TRACE32 Lauterbach GmbH () is a German electronic design automation firm specializing in in-circuit emulators and logic analyzers used for debugging embedded systems. The firm was founded in 1979 by Lothar Lauterbach. In 2009 the firm was renamed from Lau ...

provides

JTAG JTAG (named after the Joint Test Action Group which codified it) is an Technical standard, industry standard for verifying designs and testing printed circuit boards after manufacture. JTAG implements standards for on-chip instrumentation in ele ...

debug support for the independent applications stored in LYNX MOSA.ic's modules.

History

LYNX MOSA.ic was first announced by Lynx Software Technologies in 2019. The framework was developed for integration with the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

's MOSA (Modular Open Systems Approach). Starting in 2020, LYNX MOSA.ic is being utilized by the

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather Stealth aircraft, stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both Air superiority fighter, air superiority and attack ...

Program Office to support the development of upgraded mission system avionics for F-35 Lightning II fighter jets. In August 2021, Lynx Software Technologies and Advantech announced a collaboration to offer Mission Critical Edge Starter Kits for IT/OT convergence through Lynx LYNX MOSA.ic for Industrial. Lynx also partnered with CODESYS Group to integrate their control automation technology into the LYNX MOSA.ic for Industrial product in August 2021. In July 2021, Lynx also partnered with

Collins Aerospace Collins Aerospace is an American technology corporation that is one of the world's largest suppliers of aerospace and defense products. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. History On No ...

, providing LYNX MOSA.ic for Avionics as the foundation for Collins Aerospace's Perigon flight computer. Lynx Software Technologies released LYNX MOSA.ic for Industrial on the

Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...

marketplace in 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynx Software Technologies Software companies based in California Linux companies Real-time operating systems Embedded operating systems Companies based in San Jose, California