In embedded systems development, particularly in automotive, functional safety is a requirement, not a choice. But achieving and maintaining compliance with standards like ISO 26262 can be a massive drain on time and resources, especially for teams still relying on manual processes and fragmented toolchains.
The challenge: Manual safety validation slowing innovation
A few months ago, I worked with a leading Tier 1 automotive supplier that found itself stuck in a familiar, and painful situation. Their safety validation process was heavily manual and prone to human error. Every change triggered a new round of time-consuming documentation, testing, and review.
As a result, each new project faced an additional 6 to 12 months just to clear functional safety validation.
Their engineering teams were under pressure to deliver innovative features, adapt to new platforms like Arm Cortex-M, and keep older RL78-based systems maintained, all while meeting ever-evolving safety regulations.
It wasn’t just slowing them down. It was affecting their ability to compete.
The turning point: Safety-certified tools that scale
To overcome these obstacles, the company adopted the IAR functional safety toolchain, a pre-certified development environment part of the IAR platform trusted by safety-critical teams across industries.
The results were immediate and measurable:
- 70% reduction in certification time, allowing faster product releases
- Automated safety validation embedded directly into their CI/CD pipeline
- Seamless support for both legacy RL78 systems and modern Arm Cortex-M platforms
With this shift, they unlocked a streamlined path to compliance while protecting long-term investments in existing codebases and microcontroller platforms.
Why functional safety needs modern DevOps
Functional safety is no longer just a documentation exercise, it’s becoming a core part of the DevOps lifecycle. Frameworks like Jacob Beningo’s 7-Step Guide to Modernizing Embedded Systems emphasize the importance of automating testing and compliance, not just for speed, but for repeatability and risk reduction.
That’s where IAR comes in.
The IAR platform: Built for safety, designed to scale
IAR’s platform offers more than just compiler tools—it’s an ecosystem built to support safety-critical development from prototype to production, and beyond. With certified tools, automated analysis, and long-term support, teams can focus on building better products without being slowed down by regulatory roadblocks.
Key benefits include:
- TÜV SÜD-certified toolchains for ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and IEC 62304, removing uncertainty in audits and assessments
- Automated code quality and compliance checks via IAR C-STAT, supporting MISRA, CERT, and CWE standards
- Functional Safety Support Agreements (SUA) that guarantee long-term toolchain support, even across product lifecycles spanning a decade or more
From bottleneck to business advantage
For the Tier 1 supplier, functional safety is no longer a bottleneck; it’s a competitive advantage. They’ve scaled their development practices across multiple teams, accelerated innovation, and ensured compliance with the industry's highest safety standards.
Ready to modernize your safety-critical development?
If your team is facing long validation cycles, growing regulatory complexity, or the challenge of maintaining both legacy and modern systems, you’re not alone. But there’s a better way.
Join our upcoming webinar on April 15th, Breaking the CI/CD bottleneck: Scaling embedded DevSecOps with containers & automation (register to Americas session or Europe/Asia session), to discover how you can streamline workflows, accelerate certification, and simplify compliance with the help of IAR’s safety-certified platform.
Working in a smaller team? You might find the webinar on April 16th Surviving without a DevOps team: CI/CD, debugging, and containers for embedded teams (register to Americas session or Europe/Asia session), a better fit for your needs.
