ISO 17356-3:2005 describes the concept of a real-time operating system, capable of multitasking, which can be used for motor vehicles. It is not a product description which relates to a specific implementation. It also specifies the operating system Application Program Interface (API).

General conventions, explanations of terms and abbreviations have been compiled in ISO 17356-1. ISO 17356-6 discusses implementation and system generation aspects.

The specification of the OS represents a uniform environment which supports efficient utilisation of resources for automotive control unit application software. The OS is a single processor operating system meant for distributed embedded control units.