A mixed criticality system is a system containing computer hardware and software that can execute several applications of different criticality, such as safety-critical and non-safety critical, or of different safety integrity level (SIL). Different criticality applications are engineered to different levels of assurance, with high criticality applications being the most costly to design and verify. These kinds of systems are typically embedded in a machine such as an aircraft whose safety must be ensured.
Principle
Traditional safety-critical systems had to be tested and certified in their entirety to show that they were safe to use. However, many such systems are composed of a mixture of safety-critical and non-critical parts, as for example when an aircraft contains a passenger entertainment system that is isolated from the safety-critical flight systems. Some issues to address in mixed criticality systems include real-time behaviour, memory isolation, data and control coupling.
Computer scientists have developed techniques for handling systems which thus have mixed criticality, but there are many challenges remaining
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Source: Wikipedia
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