Wind River is now part of the CHERI Alliance, the U.K. group aiming to enhance cybersecurity through hardware memory safety technologies.

The cloud software firm will port and extend its VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) and Helix virtualization platform to leverage Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI), a technology architecture designed to shore up memory safety vulnerabilities for application-class systems-on-chips (SoCs).

Wind River’s provisions will specifically cater to CVA6-CHERI, the open-source RISC-V processor core developed by founding CHERI Alliance member Capabilities Limited.

Wind River was awarded a contract as part of a £21 million ($28 mn)-backed effort from Innovate U.K. and the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) to drive the adoption and diffusion of CHERI technology. The Aptiv-owned firm had previously ported VxWorks and the Helix Platform to support CHERI on Armv8-based Morello hardware.

"Transitioning Wind River platforms to CHERI RISC-V combines the power of a proven RTOS like VxWorks that has extensive safety certifications with the strengthened digital security and resilience of CHERI technology," Georgios Papadakis, senior innovation lead for secure and resilient growth directorate at Innovate UK, noted in a statement.

“By addressing memory safety at the architectural level, CHERI has the potential to improve resilience across critical infrastructure and intelligent edge deployments,” Aptiv CTO Paul Miller added. “Wind River is excited to collaborate with the CHERI Alliance and contribute our expertise in real-time operating systems and virtualization … to help operationalize CHERI in production environments.”

Alameda, California-headquartered Wind River joins other U.S. entities in the alliance such as Google, SRI International, Critical Technologies, and the Trusted Computer Center of Excellence (TCCoE).

The CHERI Alliance last year welcomed British Telecom (BT) into its fold, with the U.K. telecoms giant joining others like TechWorks, Light Momentum Technology, and CyberWhiz. The venture is also backed by the U.K.’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the National Cyber Security Center, lending authority to its cybersecurity credentials.

Most recently, the alliance unveiled a project to enhance hardware memory safety technologies for SoCs. Known as COSMIC (CHERI for Operational Safety in Memory-Isolated Cores), the three-year project applies the CHERI architecture in a commercial-quality, open source security enclave capacity within SoC designs.