Across safety-critical industries including automotive, industrial automation, and medical technology, embedded software must remain maintainable, rebuildable, and updatable for many years after products enter production. Development teams are expected to deliver updates, resolve issues, and adapt to evolving requirements while maintaining consistency in tools, workflows, and build environments.

In this context, toolchain stability becomes critical, as even minor changes in compilers or build environments can trigger additional verification and compliance efforts, effectively making long-term continuity essential for functional safety projects.

Long-Term stability for safety-critical software

IAR’s new LTS Services provide long-term continuity for functional safety toolchains, enabling teams to maintain consistent development environments throughout extended maintenance periods. By preserving stable workflows and reproducible builds, LTS helps organizations manage updates more predictably and reduce disruption across the product lifecycle.

LTS Services are tailored for customers with long warranty commitments (10–20+ years) and are delivered under a dedicated service agreement. The service secures the latest certified version for an extended period and includes the extended Maintenance License required for long product lifecycles. Customers receive validated service packs, structured known-issue reporting, and prioritized technical support, with a strong focus on lifecycle risk control to minimize disruption in safety-critical, long-term deployments. Where appropriate, support may continue in a Limited LTS framework, maintaining technical support and issue reporting without introducing additional service packs.

“In safety-critical industries, responsibility doesn’t end at product launch,” said Jakob Ågren, Chief Product Officer at IAR. “Our customers build systems that must remain safe, reliable, and maintainable for many years. With Long-Term Support Services, we’re strengthening our Embedded Development Platform to ensure continuity, not just in tools, but in confidence across the full operational lifecycle of their products, with the ability to offer multi-year support commitments.”

Supporting the full embedded lifecycle

IAR’s Embedded Development Platform combines professional toolchains, integrated code analysis, and modern licensing models aligned with today’s development practices. With the introduction of LTS Services, IAR extends the platform approach beyond initial development, supporting long-term stability for safety-critical embedded systems.

IAR Long-Term Support (LTS) Services will be introduced as part of IAR’s functional safety offering and highlighted at Embedded World 2026.