Rapita Systems Collaborates with Wind River to Break the Multicore Certification Barrier

Rapita Systems today announced a collaboration with Wind River to deliver the aerospace industry’s first fully integrated solution designed to guide avionics programs through DO-178C multicore certification, one of the most complex and persistent barriers to modern systems development.

As multicore processors become essential for next generation avionics, certification challenges around timing, interference, and system-level complexity have slowed adoption and increased program risk. Traditionally, manufacturers have been forced to stitch together fragmented tools, platforms, and suppliers, all of which are driving cost, uncertainty, and audit exposure. Rapita Systems and Wind River are changing that.

The joint solution delivers a unified, off-the-shelf platform that provides a clear and guided path from Stage of Involvement phase 1, or SOI1 through SOI4, bringing together platform software, analysis tools, certification artifacts, and services into a single, cohesive framework. By combining Wind River’s certifiable operating systems, virtualization platform, and simulation technologies with Rapita Systems’ industry-leading timing and multicore interference analysis, customers gain a fully integrated solution, built specifically for certification success. With a flexible pricing approach that supports staged adoption, it provides opportunities to scale both tools and team capacity throughout the multicore certification lifecycle.

“Certification isn’t just about tools; it’s about having the right evidence, methods, and expertise working together,” said Jamie Ayre, Chief Commercial Officer at Rapita Systems. “This partnership brings everything into one place, giving customers the confidence to tackle multicore certification head-on and accelerate their programs.”

The solution directly addresses the hardest challenges in multicore certification, including interference analysis, resource contention, and system-level verification across shared hardware environments.

Key capabilities include a certifiable multicore foundation with the VxWorks® RTOS and Helix™ Virtualization Platform hypervisor, integrated timing and interference analysis aligned to certification guidance using Rapita’s RVS tool suite and MACH178 aligned processes, tools, and evidence providing a fully guided certification path across all SOI stages.

Together, these capabilities replace fragmented approaches with a single, coordinated process that reduces integration risk and ensures certification readiness for complex multicore avionics programs. The result is a faster, more predictable route to certification for increasingly complex multicore avionics systems.

“The shift to multicore architectures is essential for next generation avionics, but certification challenges have been major pain points for the industry,” said Sandeep Modhvadia, Chief Product Officer, Wind River. “Together with Rapita Systems, we are enabling customers to innovate faster while meeting the highest safety standards with greater efficiency and confidence. The result is a scalable approach that lowers program risk and supports teams at every stage of the certification lifecycle.”

With decades of combined experience in avionics software, multicore systems, and DO‑178C certification, Rapita Systems and Wind River are uniquely positioned to help the industry overcome the transition to multicore architectures. This solution gives avionics teams the clarity, structure, and support they need to move forward with confidence. From initial platform configuration through certification audits, the joint solution provides end‑to‑end support to help customers achieve certification readiness faster and with greater assurance.

More information is available in the published Solution Brief.