  The self-* properties commonly associated with the concept of autonomic
computing are capabilities desirable for avionics software platforms. They
decrease the configuration effort and inherently provide new fault tolerance
and resource savings possibilities. The rigid certification process and the
requirements for a static and predetermined system behavior are, however, in
contradiction with the adaptive and flexible nature of autonomic computing
systems. We propose a partition-based architecture providing autonomic features
for avionics software platforms while being compliant to regulations and
accepted technologies, such as ARINC 653. The core is a platform consciousness
based on a domain-specific model and a novel MAP-QE-K cycle. Moreover, we
suggest a planning intelligence, a virtual qualification authority, and a
minimized execution unit. For each component we define the required design
assurance level and possible realization techniques. We discuss the overall
feasibility and point out central challenges in the fields of runtime
verification and models at runtime. These challenges need to be solved up to
the realization of autonomic avionics, e.g. a virtual security assessment and a
qualifiable domain-specific model database.
