SW Architecture & Unit Design
Master ISO 26262-6 software architectural design principles, safety design patterns, Freedom from Interference, AUTOSAR architecture, and unit design techniques for safety-critical automotive software.
What You'll Learn
Build complete competency in sw architecture & unit design through structured, progressive learning.
Design Safety Architectures
Apply ISO 26262-6 architectural design principles and proven safety patterns to create modular, analyzable, and verifiable software structures.
Implement FFI Partitioning
Enforce Freedom from Interference between mixed-criticality software components using temporal partitioning, spatial partitioning, and communication integrity mechanisms.
Apply SW Safety Mechanisms
Select and implement the right software safety mechanisms for each failure mode including range checks, program flow monitoring, and E2E protection.
Design AUTOSAR Safety Applications
Structure AUTOSAR-based software with appropriate OS application configuration, memory protection, and communication stack safety settings.
Handle Mixed-Criticality Systems
Design software architectures where ASIL-A through ASIL-D components coexist with proper isolation, monitoring, and decomposition strategies.
Verify Architecture & Unit Design
Plan and execute architecture verification activities with appropriate methods, independence levels, and completeness criteria per ISO 26262-6.
14 Comprehensive Chapters
Each chapter builds your sw architecture & unit design expertise systematically from foundations to advanced application.
Overview & Scope
Introduce the scope of software architectural and unit design within ISO 26262-6, clarify the relationship between architectural design, unit design, and implementation, and map to the V-Cycle phases.
Theoretical Foundations
Build the theoretical foundation for safety-oriented software design including fault models, error propagation, design for testability, and the role of formal specification in high-ASIL components.
Architectural Design Principles
Apply ISO 26262-6 architectural design principles including modularity, encapsulation, low coupling, high cohesion, and the use of defensive design strategies to prevent error propagation.
Architecture Patterns
Explore architectural patterns for safety-critical software including monitor-actuator, watchdog supervisor, safety wrapper, heterogeneous redundancy, and 1oo2 voting architectures with ASIL applicability guidance.
Unit Design
Apply unit design principles per ISO 26262-6 including proper use of data types, range checking, pre/postcondition definition, invariant documentation, and design for structural testability.
Freedom from Interference
Master Freedom from Interference (FFI) requirements for mixed-criticality software. Covers temporal partitioning, spatial partitioning, information hiding, and communication integrity between components of different ASIL.
SW DFA & Safety Analysis
Apply software-level Dependent Failure Analysis (DFA) and safety analysis techniques including FMEA at software level, FTA for software failures, and common cause failure analysis for redundant software channels.
AUTOSAR Architecture
Design safety-compliant software architectures using the AUTOSAR framework. Covers AUTOSAR layered architecture for safety, memory protection configuration, OS application design, and integration with the safety architecture.
SW Safety Mechanisms
Implement software safety mechanisms including range checks, plausibility monitoring, program flow monitoring, CRC verification, end-to-end protection, and alive counters as per ISO 26262 method requirements.
Coding Guidelines Integration
Integrate coding guidelines (MISRA C, AUTOSAR C++14) with architectural and unit design. Learn how design decisions upstream reduce guideline violations and how static analysis fits into the design verification workflow.
Mixed-Criticality Design
Design systems where software components of different ASIL levels coexist on the same hardware. Master ASIL decomposition at software level, partition isolation strategies, and the role of the OS in mixed-criticality enforcement.
ML/AI Integration
Address the architectural challenges of integrating machine learning components into safety-critical software. Covers safety wrapper patterns for ML, SOTIF boundary handling, monitoring strategies, and current ISO/PAS 21448 guidance.
Verification & Review
Verify software architecture and unit design using design reviews, walk-throughs, architecture analysis methods (ATAM, SAAM), and model checking techniques. Learn independence requirements for ASIL-C and ASIL-D reviews.
Best Practices
Industry best practices for efficient and compliant SW architectural design including design pattern libraries, architecture documentation templates, and lessons learned from common safety assessment findings.
6 Interactive Diagrams
Experiment with visual tools that bring sw architecture & unit design concepts to life.
Architecture Pattern Explorer
Interactive library of safety architecture patterns with ASIL applicability, structural diagrams, pros/cons, and example use cases for each pattern.
FFI Partitioning Visualizer
Visual demonstration of temporal and spatial partitioning between mixed-criticality software components with configurable partition boundaries and violation detection.
SW Safety Mechanism Selector
Decision tool mapping failure modes to appropriate software safety mechanisms with diagnostic coverage estimates and implementation complexity ratings.
AUTOSAR Safety Stack
Interactive AUTOSAR architecture diagram highlighting safety-relevant layers, memory protection unit configuration, OS application boundaries, and inter-application communication.
Mixed-Criticality Decomposition
Visual tool for planning ASIL decomposition at software level showing valid channel combinations, independence requirements, and FFI obligations for each configuration.
Unit Design Template
Interactive unit design specification template with fields for pre/postconditions, data ranges, error handling strategy, and testability considerations linked to ASIL requirements.
SW Architecture for ASIL-D Steering Angle Controller
Complete architectural design walkthrough for a steering angle controller with FFI between diagnostic monitor (ASIL-D) and actuation control (ASIL-D), including AUTOSAR implementation.
- SW safety requirements analysis and architectural decomposition strategy
- Monitor-actuator pattern selection and FFI partitioning design
- OS application configuration for spatial and temporal partitioning
- SW safety mechanism selection for each identified failure mode
- Architecture DFA and independence requirements verification
- Unit design specification for the plausibility monitoring component
Steering Controller Architecture
Ready to Master SW Architecture & Unit Design?
Design safety-critical software architectures that meet ISO 26262-6 requirements from FFI partitioning to AUTOSAR integration.
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