Aerospace regulates software and hardware. Software standard is DO-178B. Thanks to it, the systems get great quality assurance. A common thing that emerged from that are partitioning RTOS's that separate critical and untrustworthy stuff. They also usually have trusted boot. The cheapest CPU I saw supporting those was a Freescale one for $4 a piece in quantities of 100 units.
So, yeah, even in softwarw one can do as you suggest. Multiple times it's been done with things improving across the board. In DO-178B, an additional effect is an ecosystem of tooling, reusable components, and consultants sprang up to make each project a bit cheaper and less risky.
So, yeah, even in softwarw one can do as you suggest. Multiple times it's been done with things improving across the board. In DO-178B, an additional effect is an ecosystem of tooling, reusable components, and consultants sprang up to make each project a bit cheaper and less risky.