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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Ground support and mission planning — desktop or portable preparation tools sharing code with their airborne counterparts.
Dev Efficiency via Reference Application
Qt Group certified Qt Framework and a reference application as a single Unit of Conformance.
By using this reference application, new projects start from a certified baseline. The user application's UoC still requires verification, but the certification evidence for the underlying framework is reusable, leaving substantially less work than certifying from scratch.
Qt Framework vs Qt for MOSA
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 enabling 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.
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.