Standards step forward in design of off-highway electronics

Functional safety standards are starting to impact many development projects, while the auto industry's AUTOSAR standard is being deployed to help enable software reuse and simplify designs.

Functional safety has become a watchword in many fields as regulators and product developers attempt to ensure that failures will be minimal, and that safety isn't impaired when things do fail. ISO 26262 was developed for the automotive industry, and other standards like IEC 61508 are required in some fields.

On another front, the AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture (AUTOSAR) is slowly gaining acceptance. It shifts software development to a function-based system design, which helps companies manage the growing complexity of electronics by creating standard interfaces between hardware and software components.