Managing Obsolescence in Embedded Systems

Obsolescence and technology transparency are significant issues across a wide range of embedded real-time systems. For example in critical systems problems are caused by components having a production life cycle of less than two years as it is not uncommon for the systems being developed to have a lifecycle of more than twenty years. This leads to issues with component supply and often means there is a need for mid-life updates as components become unavailable. Also, the obsolescence issue is not just restricted to components but also tools may also only be supported for a limited time and key skills may become difficult to find. The significant investment in Integrated Modular Avionics serves as evidence of the importance of the problem. In other systems there is a continual need to update the product to take advantage of the latest technologies and to avoid single source supply. Recent attempts to address these issues include Autosar. Both of these examples represent provide challenges on how systems should be procured, designed, verified and maintained.