Seaweed Systems Services

Seaweed Systems offers a comprehensive set of hardware and software services to help customers integrate graphics hardware into their platforms, to deliver its graphics software on new platforms, and to see its customers through the certification process.

CertAssist Program

Seaweed Systems® CertAssist program provides customers with valuable assistance during the certification process that must be successfully completed in order to certify an avionics device. This assistance is designed to reduce certification risk and reduce the certification timeframe. The CertAssist program allows organizations to focus on the development of their safety-critical applications and leave the task of preparing certification artifacts for the graphics subsystem to the experts at Seaweed Systems. The CertAssist program is perfect for companies that are on tight timelines, are resource-limited, or have unique implementations. During the course of the CertAssist engagement, Seaweed Systems:

  • Establishes the verification environment,

  • Executes the verification program,

  • Maintains all configuration management and design-assurance records,

  • Provides program management services for all activities,

  • Supports certification reviews and audits, and

  • Completes all of the necessary documentation for the certification submission.

The CertAssist program provides the complete DO-178B documentation set to support the use of SeaWind®/178 OpenGL® products in a given certification submission. This includes DO-178B Plans and Standards, DO-178B Data Documentation, Review evidence, Test Procedures and Harnesses, Instructions, and full lifecycle support.

The customer's role in the CertAssist program is to provide a single point of contact to coordinate the activities between Seaweed Systems and the development team. The customer is responsible for reviewing, auditing, approving, and witnessing documentation and verification results as required. The customer's system certification authority (or a representative) takes final responsibility for certification of a system that includes SeaWind/178 software.

New Platform Support

It is Seaweed Systems' business to provide its X Window System and OpenGL software products on as many platforms as possible. Seaweed Systems has years of experience porting its products to different CPU and system architectures, graphics boards, graphics devices, and operating system platforms. Our products have already been ported to many of the most popular platforms available. The platforms that Seaweed Systems supports are constantly expanding; if you don't see your platform on our compatibility list, don't assume that your platform is not supported. We may not be able to list all supported platforms publicly, so please contact us for the most up-to-date information on supported systems.

In the event that customers need Seaweed Systems software to run on a platform that is currently not supported, Seaweed Systems charges a one-time fixed Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) fee for the porting effort, in addition to the applicable license fees for its software.

Avionics Hardware Design Support

Seaweed Systems' highly-experienced staff of graphics hardware design engineers is available to help customers build high-performance highly reliable graphics systems. Its staff has experience with graphics chip and firmware design, and embedded hardware design. Seaweed Systems' on-staff FAA Designated Engineering Representative (DER) is accredited to Design Assurance Level A for both DO-178B and DO-254 for Part 23 and 25 projects. The Seaweed Systems DER is available for consultation on software and electronic hardware compliance and certification issues.

Embedded Support Agreement

Seaweed Systems puts immense effort into building relationships with its COTS graphics-device vendors so that it can support customers with all of the documentation and expertise needed for a smooth development process. Seaweed Systems works with its graphics-device partners to execute a one-time hand-off of documents and technical support, so that Seaweed Systems can assume most of the vendors' support burden for the embedded market, in turn helping to contain costs. Seaweed Systems also assures itself the access to its graphics-device vendors' design data and design team in order to address critical support queries in the most effective manner possible. Through its Embedded Support Agreement, Seaweed Systems shares this cumulative product and design knowledge with its customers.

For companies integrating graphics devices from Seaweed Systems into their products, the Embedded Support Agreement defines the support services that Seaweed Systems offers and lists the documents and data that it provides to its customers.

For the duration of an Embedded Support Agreement, Seaweed Systems provides telephone and e-mail support and documentation.