IEEE/IEC P60880

New IEEE Standard - Active - Draft.


This document provides requirements for the software of computer-based Instrumentation and Control (I&C) systems of nuclear power plants performing functions of safety category A as defined by IEC 61226. As an IEC/IEEE standard developed according to the Dual Logo Agreement, when used within the context of IEEE, this document provides an acceptable set of requirements for achieving the quality and reliability objectives for the software used in IEEE Class 1E safety systems, subsystems, and components. According to the definition in IEC 61513, I&C systems of safety class 1 support category A functions, but may also support functions of lower categories.
However the system requirements are always determined by the functions of the highest category implemented.
For software of I&C system performing only category B and C functions in Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) as defined by IEC 61226, the requirements and guidance of IEC 62138 are applicable.
This document provides requirements for the purpose of achieving highly reliable software. It addresses each stage of software generation and documentation, including requirements specification, design, implementation, verification and validation testing.
The principles applied in developing these requirements include:
– best available practices;
– top-down design methods;
– modularity;
– verification of each phase;
– clear documentation;
– auditable documents;
– validation testing.
Annex A provides detailed requirements and recommendations for design and implementation of software.
Additional informative guidance is given in Annex B to Annex G.
This document does not explicitly address how to protect software against those threats arising from malicious attacks, i.e. cybersecurity, for computer-based systems. IEC 62645 provides cybersecurity requirements.
IEC 62671 may be used as an alternative to this document for digital devices of limited functionality. IEC 62671 contains precise criteria to determine if it is applicable to a particular device.