Generic Assurance Topics for Any Type of Programmable Content

Abstract

An ever-growing range of technologies can be used to implement programmable content. Examples include highly complex System-On-Chip designs, which use traditional electronics, as well as approaches based on quantum technologies and biological systems. Standards and guidance are required to support the safe use of these, and other, emerging programmable technologies. However, technology-specific guidance is challenging to produce, especially in a timely manner. To help bridge this gap, we propose a set of generic assurance topics, which are applicable to all types of programmable content, introducing considerations based on the assurance of both a program, and the associated substrate. The topics are initially introduced by considering multi-core processors. Their application to alternate domains is illustrated by considering electronic hardware tailored for machine learning, quantum computing and computation using a bio-based substrate.