MEN Mikro Elektronik was granted a SIL 4 certification by TÜV SÜD, an international service corporation that focuses on consulting, testing, certification and training. Unlike solutions that use a fixed, inflexible hardware/software configuration, the MEN Modular Train Control System opens up essential interfaces between the control electronics and user applications, according to the company.
The software architecture of the MTCS system’s F75P computer isolates safe and “unsafe” domains in order to save cost and time for application development and certification. The company achieved this separation through the QNX OS for Safety, which offers support for application partitioning through its modular microkernel architecture.