Building BIOS Architecture

75. BIOS Safety Philosophy

The Building BIOS shall be designed as a cyber-physical coordination system whose failure, compromise, or incorrect configuration may affect physical building operation.

Safety shall not depend upon the assumption that software, networks, sensors, cloud services, AI systems, or human operators will always function correctly.

The BIOS Safety Philosophy shall follow these principles:

physical protection shall remain independent where required;

uncertainty shall produce restriction rather than unsafe activation;

critical faults shall be detectable and traceable;

failure of one service shall not unnecessarily disable independent safe systems;

commanded state shall remain distinguishable from verified physical state;

safety functions shall receive priority over convenience and optimization;

safety-critical changes shall require stronger authority and evidence;

emergency functions shall remain locally available;

recovery shall restore a verified configuration rather than merely restart software.

The BIOS shall coordinate safety information, permissions, dependencies, operating modes, and state transitions. It shall not replace certified physical or dedicated safety systems unless the BIOS implementation has been specifically engineered, tested, and certified for that function.

Hazards considered shall include:

unintended structural release;

unintended energization;

electrical isolation failure;

uncontrolled fluid release;

loss of ventilation or environmental control;

fire and smoke-system interference;

unauthorized access;

robotic movement;

false sensor information;

configuration corruption;

conflicting commands;

software or communication failure;

malicious cyber-physical action.

Safety-related decisions shall record their initiating condition, applicable rule, authority, resulting command, verified physical result, and unresolved limitations.