The benefits of middleware for safety-related systems-on-chip

System-on-Chip architectures are increasingly designed for safety-related purposes. As a very high level of interlocking of hard- and software is required for such specialized systems, different concepts for the software composition are necessary. This paper investigates the benefits resulting from the utilization of a middleware which handles all low-level hardware access demanded by the application. Several measures recommended by standard IEC 61508 are implemented “quasi-automatically” if a certified middleware is used. In addition, the certification effort is drastically decreased if the implementation of main functionalities is based on certified, reused components. Another “side-effect” is the hiding of details concerning the system-on-chip and the operating system as the application always uses the middleware interfaces.