Software Code & Tools

MONTREAL, Quebec, 15 Feb. 2012. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics engineers are using the Presagis VAPS XT-178, a DO-178B Level A human machine interface (HMI) tool from Presagis, to develop embedded graphics displays for the Special Mission Processor (SMP) under the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) MC-130J Increment 3 program. Presagis VAPS XT-178 will run on the MC-130J Variant and offer a path to compliance under the new DO-178C guidance. 

SUNNYVALE, Calif., 15 Feb. 2012. Real-Time Innovations (RTI) in Sunnyvale, Calif., is introducing the RTI Connext family of software-engineering tools to connect real-time software applications across an enterprise. RTI Connext is a service-oriented architecture (SOA) tool designed to help provide enterprise-wide integration to improve efficiency, responsiveness, and real-time business intelligence, RTI officials say.

ANNAPOLIS, Md., 12 Feb. 2012. Radio communications experts at ARINC Inc. in Annapolis, Md., are using supercomputers to help systems integrators design and analyze the performance of complex antennas. Complex Antenna Engineering and Analyses. The ARINC Advanced Systems Engineering and Integration Division has installed a Linux-based supercomputer to support engineering analyses for ARINC’s external customers. The company’s previous supercomputer also remains available.

FAIRMONT, W.Va., 9 Feb. 2012. Galaxy Global Corp. of Fairmont, W. Va., won from NASA officials a contract to provide support to the NASA Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Software Assurance Tools (SWAT) Group at the NASA IV&V Facility in Fairmont, W.Va. Galaxy Global staff are contracted to provide management, continuous improvement, expert training, and engineering services for the Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools employed in the NASA IV&V Program.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., 8 Feb. 2012. Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara, Calif., is introducing software- and runtime-development tools for the IBM Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA), which is a multicore microprocessor that includes a 64-bit Power Architecture processor (PPE) core and eight synergistic processor (SPE) cores that is appropriate for applications like digital signal processing (DSP), graphics, and similar complex computational tasks.

MONKS FERRY, U.K., 2 Feb. 2012. The LDRA tool suite from LDRA--maker of standards compliance, automated software verification, source code analysis and test tools--now supports direct integration with Altera’s Embedded Design Suite (EDS) for Nios II soft core processors.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., 1 Feb. 2012. Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara, Calif., is introducing the end-to-end ISS Security Solutions software engineering tools suite for the company's Integrity real-time operating system (RTOS). ISS Security Solutions consists of Suite B-Compliant Security Protocol Toolkits and Device Lifecycle Management (DLM) system.

SAN FRANCISCO, 31 Jan. 2012. U.S. Navy and U.S. Army officials joined forces with aerospace and defense industry leaders, including executives from Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins, to help ensure warfighters can benefit from continued software innovations, both more quickly and more affordably, despite anticipated U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) budget cuts. The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium has released the FACE Technical Standard, providing guidelines for creating a common operating environment to support applications across multiple DOD avionics systems.

Jan. 4, 2012 By Chris Murray.

When it comes to a sound certification practice, commercial and military avionics are light years ahead of the pack. DO-178 certification, first introduced in the 1980s, represents the gold-standard, requiring companies to comply with software processes that mandate requirements traceability, software architecture and coding guidance, comprehensive testing of all code, and the production of certifiable products. Both commercial and military industries boast the healthiest record on system safety. And, largely due to these processes, projects such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) are recognized for the highest levels of design and safety integrity.

BOHEMIA, N.Y., 29 Nov 2011. Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is introducing a hardware/software development kit that with tools to help avionics and other systems designers implement MIL-STD-1553 avionics databus boards using the DDC Total-AceXtreme MIL-STD-1553 single package. The kit provides support to accelerate development and deployment while capitalizing on the AceXtreme architecture, company officials say.

NEW YORK, 22 Nov. 2011. Advanced Micro Peripherals in New York is introducing the H264-ULL-PMC low-latency, dual-channel H.264 encoder on a PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) for time-critical applications in real-time control, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other defense applications, transportation, traffic monitoring and control, video digital recording and internet streaming, electronic news gathering, simulation, and remote video surveillance. The H264-ULL-PMC can capture and compress as many as two analog video inputs of resolutions as fine as 1,080 pixels to the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (Part 10) standard.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, 17 Nov. 2011. Qatar Airways engineers will install the new Electronic Flight Folder (EFF) from Boeing (NYSE:BA) on the company’s current fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft, as well as its future Boeing 787 fleet. The addition enables transmission of day-of-flight data, including flight plans and weather information, directly to the airplane’s electronic flight bag (EFB). Qatar Airways officials expect the carrier to begin using the EFF in 2012.

OKLAHOMA CITY, 10 Nov. 2011. The Boeing Company [NYSE:BA] won from U.S. Air Force officials a $57 million follow-on contract for additional upgrades to the B-1 bomber fleet avionics software. Boeing engineers are starting design and development work on Sustainment Block 16A (SB 16A), which includes changes to the aircraft's navigation, weapon delivery, radar, diagnostics, electrical multiplexing, communication/navigation management system software, and controls and displays. SB 16A will improve the B-1 crew's situational awareness via new color cockpit displays, data link, and sensor capabilities.

BOSTON, 28 Sept. 2011. Software source-code analysis tools specialist GrammaTech Inc. in Ithaca, N.Y., is introducing the next version of the company's CodeSonar tool for detecting defects in complex application software. The newest CodeSonar release has program-analysis algorithms that identify data races and other serious concurrency defects, as well as code-level metrics. GrammaTech made the announcement this week at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston. The GrammaTech CodeSonar tool can apply concurrency analysis to multi-threaded software for single- and multi-core programs. CodeSonar finds data races, deadlock, and process starvation by using symbolic execution techniques to reason about possible execution paths and interleavings simultaneously.

BOSTON, 28 Sept. 2011. Two major software design and development tools companies are joining forces to provide an integrated environment that offers independent verification and traceability of software artifacts involving requirements, model elements, or tests through the software to help systems designers meet the requirements of software standards such as DO-178B/C, IEC 62304, ISO 26262, IEC 61508. LDRA Ltd. headquartered in Monks Ferry, England, with U.S. operations in San Bruno, Calif., is teaming with The MathWorks in Natick, Mass., to combine the LDRA tool suite with Simulink modelling tools to assist in software standards compliance. The companies made the announcement this week at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston.

ORLANDO, Fla., 23 Sept. 2011. U.S. Navy helicopter avionics designers are looking to the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control business unit in Orlando, Fla., to provide the Target Sight System (TSS), which provides fire control and targeting for the U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter. Lockheed Martin will do the work under terms of a $49.9 million follow-on production contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Washington, company officials announced this week. NSWC awarded the first TSS production contract in March 2008, followed by a second production contract in June 2010.

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, 16 Sept. 2011. The Boeing Class 3 Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), for which Astronautics Corp. of America provides hardware, has flown on the certified freighter version of the Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet. The Boeing 747-8 freighter, for which the Astronautics EFB is an option, completed its final certification flight test on August 3 and received full certification on August 19. Luxembourg-based Cargolux Airlines is expected to receive the 747-8 freighter equipped with the Astronautics EFB this month.

STAMFORD, Conn., 2 Sept. 2011. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research engineers have revealed findings of a study on the fuel- and carbon-reduction benefits of surface departure metering performed at JFK International Airport. Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the airlines operating at the airport, and PASSUR Aerospace, under the leadership of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, collaborated on the departure metering program.

WASHINGTON, 29 Aug. 2011. Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) officials demonstrated the company’s unmanned aircraft system (UAS) common ground control system (CGCS) technology for United Kingdom Ministry of Defence representatives. In a Scavenger unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mission scenario, the Raytheon control station demonstrated simultaneous control of multiple dissimilar vehicles, sensor command and control, and connectivity to external systems, among other capabilities. Raytheon received International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) approval from the U.S. State Department to demonstrate its CGCS to U.K. and French governments last month.