Qt Framework: Adapted to the FACE® Technical Standard
Qt for MOSA is a version of Qt Framework conformant with the General-Purpose Profile of the FACE® Technical Standard, Edition 3.2. It is a Unit of Conformance (UoC) in the Platform-Specific Services Segment (PSSS), supplying an adapted Qt Framework alongside a reference application.
It retains a large subset of Qt Framework, including Qt Quick, Qt Widgets, and Qt Charts, so teams with an existing Qt codebase carry most of that investment forward.
By abstracting over the API permitted by the FACE Operating System Segment, Qt for MOSA makes the development of FACE Conformant HMIs as straightforward as conventional Qt development.
Target Programs and Applications
The FACE® Technical Standard began in safety-critical airborne systems and has since spread much further, carried by the MOSA mandate into mission-critical but less safety-constrained programs: ground vehicles, surveillance suites, sensor and radar systems. These programs may use the less restrictive General-Purpose Profile, for which a general-purpose framework such as Qt is well suited.
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Mission systems software — target tracking, mission planning, weapons system control.
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Sensor and surveillance systems — radar, infrared, and EO/IR.
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Navigation and flight management — advanced map rendering and terrain awareness overlays.
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Ground support and mission planning — desktop or portable preparation tools sharing code with their airborne counterparts.
Dev Efficiency Within Qt for MOSA
A reference application enables new projects to begin from a verified UoC. Users replace it with their own business logic, retaining the verified framework beneath.
Qt for MOSA retains many of the core Qt capabilities for HMI development, among others:
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Traditional Qt Widgets for static, desktop-style interfaces, and Qt Quick and QML for dynamic interfaces for embedded targets.
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Event-driven programming through signals and slots.
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The metaobject compiler enables introspection and asynchronous function calls independent of the C++ language runtime.
Additionally, development can rely upon the standard tooling supporting Qt, e.g. Qt Creator for backend development and debugging, Qt Design Studio and Figma to Qt for converting designs into code, and Boot to Qt for prototyping on embedded targets.
Architecture Details
The Qt for MOSA Unit of Conformance occupies the Platform-Specific Services Segment. Inside it, the user code component sits above the Qt Framework component, and the two combine to form the UoC. The Qt Framework API is unchanged.
Below the framework, the Qt Platform Abstraction and the Qt EGLFS platform plugin reach the graphics stack through EGL and OpenGL ES 2.0. Input device drivers move out of the framework and into the I/O Services Segment. There are no direct Linux system calls: process, memory, and device services come from the Operating System Segment through the General-Purpose Profile POSIX interface, and communication with other components runs through the Transport Services Segment.
An Established Framework and a Long-Term Partner
With 30 years of history, Qt Framework powers billions of devices. Manufacturers in more than 70 industries use Qt to build production-grade software for regulated sectors, including medical, automotive, and defense.
- Long-term maintenance. Qt for MOSA ships with Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) and Extended Support included, so a program's software stays serviceable across its fielded life.
- Quality assurance across the toolchain. Axivion Static Code Analysis, Squish, and Coco carry DO-330 Tool Qualification Kits for teams working within DO-178C and DO-278A programs.
- Transparency and compliance. A detailed Software Bill of Materials and consistent, backward-compatible APIs.
- Customizable installations adapt to specific requirements while maintaining robust security. For example, support for offline installations ensures the protection of air-gapped networks.