Standards glossary
Glossary
Plain-English definitions of ISO 26262, ASIL, AUTOSAR, ASPICE, DO-178C, MIL-STD-810, UVM, DFT and other standards engineers work with.
A
- ASIL
- An ASIL (Automotive Safety Integrity Level) is the risk class ISO 26262 assigns to a hazardous event. It is derived from severity…
- ASPICE
- ASPICE (Automotive SPICE) is the process assessment model the automotive industry uses to evaluate supplier development processes. Maintained by the VDA Quality…
- ATE
- ATE (Automated Test Equipment) is the computer-controlled tester used to check every semiconductor device in production. In semiconductor manufacturing, ATE applies test…
- AUTOSAR
- AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) is a standardised software architecture for automotive ECUs, developed by a partnership of OEMs, suppliers and tool…
B
- BSP
- A board support package (BSP) is the board-specific software layer that lets an operating system run on a particular hardware design. It…
- Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)
- Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) is an engagement model in which a service provider sets up a dedicated engineering team or centre for a client,…
C
- Contract-to-hire
- Contract-to-hire is a hiring model in which an engineer starts as a contractor employed by a staffing provider and, after an agreed…
D
- DAL
- A DAL (Design Assurance Level, or Development Assurance Level) is the rating from A to E that sets how rigorously airborne software…
- DFT
- DFT (Design for Testability) is the set of hardware structures added to an integrated circuit so that manufacturing defects can be detected…
- DO-178C
- DO-178C is the guidance document certification authorities use to approve software in airborne systems. Published by RTCA in December 2011 (EUROCAE ED-12C),…
- DO-254
- DO-254 is the design assurance guidance for airborne electronic hardware, published by RTCA in April 2000 (EUROCAE ED-80). It is applied mainly…
F
- Fuzz testing
- Fuzz testing, or fuzzing, is a security testing method that sends large volumes of malformed, unexpected or random inputs to a program…
G
- Global capability centre (GCC)
- A global capability centre (GCC) is an offshore unit owned by a multinational company that performs work for its parent, such as…
H
- HIL testing
- HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop) testing connects a real controller, such as an automotive ECU or flight computer, to a real-time simulator that models the…
I
- Independent verification and validation (IV&V)
- Independent verification and validation (IV&V) is verification and validation carried out by people or an organisation separate from the developers of the…
- ISO 26262
- ISO 26262 is the international functional safety standard for electrical and electronic systems in series-production road vehicles. It defines a safety lifecycle…
- ISO/SAE 21434
- ISO/SAE 21434 is the international standard for cybersecurity engineering of road vehicle electrical and electronic systems, published in August 2021. It defines…
M
- MC/DC
- MC/DC (modified condition/decision coverage) is a structural coverage criterion requiring that every decision takes both outcomes, every condition takes both values, and…
- MIL-STD-461
- MIL-STD-461 is the US Department of Defense standard for controlling electromagnetic interference from and into military subsystems and equipment. The current revision,…
- MIL-STD-810
- MIL-STD-810 is the US Department of Defense standard for environmental engineering and laboratory testing of equipment. The current revision, MIL-STD-810H (January 2019),…
- MISRA C
- MISRA C is a set of coding guidelines for the C language in safety-related and critical embedded systems, published by MISRA. It…
P
- Post-silicon validation
- Post-silicon validation is the process of testing first fabricated chips in the lab to confirm they work as specified in a real…
S
- SIL testing
- SIL (software-in-the-loop) testing runs compiled production or generated code on a host computer against simulated plant models and inputs, without target hardware.…
- SOTIF (ISO 21448)
- SOTIF, the Safety Of The Intended Functionality, is defined in ISO 21448:2022. It addresses hazards that arise without any fault: from insufficiencies…
- Staff augmentation
- Staff augmentation is an engagement model in which a provider supplies engineers who work inside the client's team, follow the client's processes…
U
- UNECE R155
- UNECE R155 is the UN regulation that makes vehicle cybersecurity a condition of type approval. Manufacturers must hold a certified Cybersecurity Management…
- UVM
- UVM (Universal Verification Methodology) is the standard SystemVerilog class library and methodology for building reusable, constrained-random testbenches for digital chip verification. Developed…
V
- V-model
- The V-model is a development lifecycle in which each specification level on the left side of a V is paired with a…
Y
- Yocto Project
- The Yocto Project is an open-source Linux Foundation project that provides tools and metadata for building custom embedded Linux distributions. Using the…