Validation and certification of safety-critical embedded systems -: The DECOS test bench

The integrated EU-project DECOS (Dependable Embedded Components and Systems) aims at developing an integrated architecture for embedded systems to reduce life-cycle costs and to increase dependability of embedded applications. To facilitate the certification process of DECOS-based applications, the DECOS Test Bench constitutes a framework to support Validation & Verification. By implementing a modular approach, an application safety case merely contains the application-specific issues and re-uses the safety arguments of the "generic" safety cases of the DECOS platform. The Test Bench covers the complete life cycle from the platform-independent models to deployment, including model validation and transformations. The safety cases are based on validation-plans (v-plans) comprising the steps to validate the safety requirements. The Test Bench provides a methods/tools repository, guidelines to generate and execute v-plans, and integration of tools and of remotely distributed test beds.