A SAFETY CRITICAL PROCESSOR AND PROCESSING METHOD FOR A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM

摘要

A system and method for operating application software in a safety critical environment have a data processor for effecting processing operations and an intermediate shell for interacting with an operating system and application software. A safety critical processor is receptive of a series of timing signals from the intermediate shell for determining that a time interval between two of the series of timing signals is greater than a predetermined value thereby constituting a potential safety critical failure and indicates a potential safety critical failure to the intermediate shell.