Autonomous vehicles (AVs) – the ones that drive on their own – are the next big thing in the automobile and GPS industry, as these vehicles are gaining lot of attention around the globe due to advantages involved in them such as increase in automotive safety, reduced commuting time, and reduced fuel consumption.

Cashing in on the market benefits involved in the autonomous vehicles industry, Green Hills Software’s INTEGRITY Security Services (ISS) business unit unveiled a new Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Open Platform for the UAV control segments, UAV Mission, payload and flight control systems.

Aiming at the autonomous systems community, the Open Platform provides a secure, highly reliable and safe software foundation for Autonomous Vehicle and UCS developers to host their UAS (Unmanned Autonomous Systems) applications.

Encompassing INTEGRITY-178B real-time operating system and FIPS-validated cryptographic toolkit, the new Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Open Platform is secure, highly reliable, and facilitates for the overall reduction in the development cost and time-to-market for US Government’s next generation of autonomous vehicles.

Available on a wide variety of microprocessor architectures, the new ISS Autonomous Vehicle Open Platform is based on the company’s certified INTEGRITY-178B RTOS to provide a high availability framework, and a TCP stack and file system for applications in need of those services.

Apart from TCP networking stack, the new ISS AV Open Platform also features optional web server, Layer 3 IP routing, USB and management stack.

Meeting the latest government standards, the ISS AV Open Platform represents a key investment as well as commitment towards the security and management of AVs and Universal Control Segments (UCS) in the embedded and special-purpose computing market.

Leveraging the ISS UCS Open Platform, the ISS AV Open Platform has been provided with ISS’ proprietary FIPS-validated Embedded Cryptographic Toolkit as well as MULTI integrated development environment.

Designed to be small, scalable and SKPP/EAL6+-compliant (INTEGRITY-178B multi-level secure operating system option), the AV Open Platform provides support for Windows, Linux, INTEGRITY and other general-purpose operating systems on ARM (News - Alert), Intel, Power Architecture, MIPS and other processor architectures.

The INTEGRITY-178B real-time operating system (RTOS) is a multi-level secure operating system that can meet the software safety requirements of RTCA/DO-178B Level A for safety and total reliability, and the information assurance requirements of the U.S. Government’s EAL6+ Separation Kernel Protection Profile (SKPP) for absolute security.

Dan O’Dowd, chief executive officer and founder of Green Hills Software, said in a statement, “Our ISS Autonomous Vehicle Open Platform is the first end-to-end Open Platform in the embedded industry that includes an EAL6+-certified RTOS and a FIPS-validated Embedded Cryptographic Toolkit.”

Recently, Green Hills Software also unveiled Green Hills Platform for Smart Energy, as reported by TMCnet.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.