RTCA/DO-254 (also known as DO-254 in the US or ED-80 in Europe) provides guidelines to facilitate requirements-based design of airborne electronic hardware. Now mandated by the US Federal Aviation Association (FAA) and many other aviation agencies and military programs, DO-254 establishes a standard to ensure that airborne custom micro-coded components (i.e., PLD, FPGA, and ASIC devices) perform their intended function under all foreseeable conditions.

First attempts to comply with DO-254 standards can be fraught with delays and unexpected costs. Project managers can minimize these difficulties if they understand what DO-254 compliance really entails, and modify their flows and toolsets to support it.