{"data":{"id":"us/49-cfr-229.305","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"49 CFR 229.305","heading":"Definitions.","body":"As used in this subpart—\nCohesion is a measure of how strongly-related or focused the responsibilities of a system, subsystem, or component are.\nComingle refers to the act of creating systems, subsystems, or components where the systems, subsystems, or components are tightly coupled and with low cohesion.\nComponent means an electronic element, device, or appliance (including hardware or software) that is part of a system or subsystem.\nConfiguration management control plan means a plan designed to ensure that the proper and intended product configuration, including the electronic hardware components and software version, is documented and maintained through the life-cycle of the products in use.\nExecutive software means software common to all installations of a given electronic product. It generally is used to schedule the execution of the site-specific application programs, run timers, read inputs, drive outputs, perform self-diagnostics, access and check memory, and monitor the execution of the application software to detect unsolicited changes in outputs.\nInitialization refers to the startup process when it is determined that a product has all required data input and the product is prepared to function as intended.\nLoosely coupled means an attribute of systems, referring to an approach to designing interfaces across systems, subsystems, or components to reduce the interdependencies between them—in particular, reducing the risk that changes within one system, subsystem, or component will create unanticipated changes within other system, subsystem, or component.\nMaterials handling refers to explicit instructions for handling safety-critical components established to comply with procedures specified by the railroad.\nProduct means any safety critical electronic locomotive control system, subsystem, or component, not including safety critical processor based signal and train control systems, whose functions are directly related to safe movement and stopping of the train as well as the associated man-machine interfaces irrespective of the location of the control system, subsystem, or component.\nRevision control means a chain of custody regimen designed to positively identify safety-critical components and spare equipment availability, including repair/replacement tracking.\nSafety Analysis refers to a formal set of documentation which describes in detail all of the safety aspects of the product, including but not limited to procedures for its development, installation, implementation, operation, maintenance, repair, inspection, testing, and modification, as well as analyses supporting its safety claims.\nSafety-critical, as applied to a function, a system, or any portion thereof, means the correct performance of which is essential to safety of personnel or equipment, or both; or the incorrect performance of which could cause a hazardous condition, or allow a hazardous condition which was intended to be prevented by the function or system to exist.\nSubsystem means a defined portion of a system.\nSystem refers to any electronic locomotive control system and includes all subsystems and components thereof, as the context requires.\nTest facility means a track that is not part of the general railroad system of transportation and is being used exclusively for the purpose of testing equipment and has all of its public grade crossings protected.\nTightly Coupled means an attribute of systems, referring to an approach to designing interfaces across systems, subsystems, or components to maximize the interdependencies between them. In particular, increasing the risk that changes within one system, subsystem, or component will create unanticipated changes within other system, subsystem, or component.","path":["Title 49—Transportation","Subtitle B—Other Regulations Relating to Transportation","CHAPTER II—FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION","PART 229—RAILROAD LOCOMOTIVE SAFETY STANDARDS","Subpart E—Locomotive Electronics"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-49.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:26:34Z","sha256":"0b7841d449d4db813989148de8daa824c2881767c0a3e48b05e71ffda0c915e8","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/49-cfr-229.303","next":"us/49-cfr-229.307"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}