MILS changes the way embedded devices work

Evolved by the US government, industry and academia as a way of harnessing the strength of computers with reduced hardware and increased security/safety of the systems, multiple independent levels of security (or MILS, as it is known) has emerged as a standard over the years. Several companies, including WindRiver, have been trying to adopt this approach for some time. But, as Rob Hoffman, Vice President and General Manager, Aerospace and Defence, WindRiver Worldwide, explains, MILS would have a wider impact on all industries that use embedded technology extensively. Excerpts:
 
In what way do you consider VXWorks MILS as an advancement / how does it make the OS better?

People want their devices to have more and more functionalities – be it a car, a cell phone or a military aircraft. Naturally, more functionality would ask for more compute power, which need to be provided without increasing the size of the devices. The new Operating System (OS) approach (MILS) we have been introducing would help developers of cell phones or robots reduce the size, weight and power (SWaP) of the computers they use to provide the functions. We believe this is a very significant technology.
For instance, if you are using about a hundred processors in a car, you can bring it down to about a handful. There are a lot of reasons why we want to do this, one of course is to add more capability with less space-weight-power, the other is to reduce manufacturing cost. This would obviously have an impact on the price of the product. So, as you can see, there is implication for all kinds of consumers across the world.
The other major factor is that people want their systems to be safe and secure. This is a requirement we often come across in all verticals. The new approach would keep systems safe, even as we add more features to it. Over the next five to ten years, we believe about half of the devices will have operating systems that has safety and security features.
So in that sense, this is futuristic. We couldn’t achieve this earlier than now, because this has been difficult with the current techniques. As we add more capabilities, it is very difficult to have safer systems. This is same for the military aircraft, a tank, an electrical power station or a water treatment plant. This way the technology will have a strong impact on lay people across the world over time.

How is this done?

Take the example of a cell phone. We find it crashing all the time because it is so difficult to test if all its different features (applications) can work together in the environment of the operating system.
What we do with MILS is that we isolate each of those features so that if one of them crashes, we still have the others working. So if your internet browser stutters, it won’t crash the whole phone; all that you need to do is to fix that particular application. Similarly, in the case of a car, we need to make sure that if the entertainment system crashes, the breaks doesn't crash.
Suppose if we are talking about a system that requires security, say, a financial system processing money from different banks or different countries, we need to make sure that failure of one part of this system doesn’t impact the other parts. If there is a system processing national security data, then we need to make sure failure of one part doesn’t affect the security of the other parts.
Since microprocessors are faster and more powerful, it is possible for us to have different features on one operating system and it is possible for us to isolate them appropriately. On the basic operating system of devices -which is called a kernel- we use “separation kernels” which makes it possible for applications to be run separately.

Where do you see the most interest for MILS coming?

Right now, the Aerospace and Defence is showing maximum interest. We think the industrialists would also begin to realise the merits of the system. Mind you, we are only talking about the verticals that are showing interest; not about the applicability, which can be extended to several sectors.