THE AIRBUS APPROACH TO OPEN INTEGRATED MODULAR AVIONICS (IMA): TECHNOLOGY, METHODS, PROCESSES AND FUTURE ROAD MAP

Since twenty years the rapid increase of micro electronics performance according to Moore’s Law pushed the respective customer demand for more and smarter functionality on modern Aircraft (A/C) systems. In order to keep the volume, weight, power consumption and cost of avionic within reasonable limits the classical concept: one function = one avionic controller can finally not be maintained. Concepts are due to get multiple software (SW) functions of different origin and criticality level to be integrated on single avionic controller devices. This is the step to “Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA)”. The first IMA solution was introduced 1995 on the Boeing 777. It was the “A/C Information Management System (AIMS)” from Honeywell, a backplane based modularized “cabinet”. The AIMS Cabinet integrated several flight guidance, data recording and maintenance applications. After several years of in service experience the new avionic concept proved to be at least one order of magnitude more reliable than conventional embedded controllers. Today the IMA cabinet technology is state of the art on different A/C programs. In Europe Airbus together with THALES-DIEHL took a further step in the development of an Open IMA technology standard on the A380 program. The features of “open” IMA go beyond the initial approach of AIMS by Honeywell in terms of applying open avionic and commercial communication standards as well as sharing knowledge between the IMA platform provider and the airframer on the technical features of the standardized computing resources. In order to achieve this, the proprietary cabinet solutions were abandoned and substituted by general purpose ARINC 600 Standard avionic controllers, labeled CPIOM (Core Processing & IO Module), which are applied to both cockpit and utility functions, i.e. quite across all A/C system domains. Further, an “A/C Full DupleX (AFDX)” switched Ethernet communication network was provided which connects all controller devices of the A/C. Ethernet switches and CPIOM are designed according to the common aeronautic ARINC 600 standards and thus, are open to all potential avionic manufacturers. Additionally Airbus and THALES-DIEHL developed the necessary processes, methods and tools that support the new Open IMA technology. The presentation will give a survey on the state of the art of the A380 IMA concept in terms of technical aspects and with a strong focus on the methodical features of this technology (configuration, incremental qualification, tools, industrial roles & responsibilities, liabilities etc.). Finally – derived from the Lessons learnt – a roadmap towards further needs and targets and the respective technology will be given.