Garmin AT
"We began evaluating RTOSes for our navigation application. We needed a reliable and tested RTOS provided with full source code and without royalty fees. After evaluating several options, we chose the Nucleus RTOS. It has served our needs well." --John Pratt, Software Engineering Team Leader for Garmin AT, a subsidiary of Garmin International
Nucleus RTOS Flying in Garmin's CNX80 Avionics GPS Navigator
The CNX80 Avionics Navigator
The CNX80 is an advanced integrated avionics system designed for general aviation. The unit is approved for primary navigation and includes the industry's first certified Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS)/GPS navigator which dramatically improves the accuracy, integrity and availability of the GPS. The CNX80 allows a pilot to file a flight plan, receive clearance and program the approved flight plan in the exact same manner. It is the first integrated navigator designed for general aviation with voice prompting and audio alerting.
Nucleus Selected for the CNX80
Developers at Garmin began evaluating real-time operating systems (RTOS) for their navigation application. They needed a reliable and tested RTOS provided with full source and without royalty fees. The Nucleus RTOS was chosen for the CNX80.
In addition to these requirements, Garmin developers were looking for an RTOS that they could certify through the FAA to meet the airborne software requirements from DO-178B for Level B software. Certification requires adequate documentation that every decision point in the source code is fully tested to ensure safe operation of an aircraft. Developers tested the Nucleus PLUS kernel and received FAA certification with no changes required.
Besides the Nucleus PLUS kernel, the basis for the Nucleus family of products, Garmin developers also used the following Nucleus software components to build the navigation design: the Nucleus MNT prototyping environment, the Nucleus FILE file management software and the Nucleus GRAFIX software graphics package.