Avionics software supports sophisticated displays

Wind River's VxWorks 653 integrated multiple avionics (IMA) platform allows sophisticated display functions to be integrated into time and space-partitioned systems using standard COTS platforms.

Wind River Systems' partnership with Esterel Technologies has produced code generated from Esterel's Scade suite and Scade display targeted for Wind River's VxWorks 653 platform, which is safety-certified to DO-178B Level A and conforms to ARINC 653, Supplement 2 Part 1.

These combined commercial-off the shelf (COTS) solutions allow avionics systems suppliers to save up to 35% or more over the life of a DO-178B certified system.

Wind River's VxWorks 653 integrated multiple avionics (IMA) platform allows sophisticated display functions to be easily integrated into time and space-partitioned systems using standard COTS platforms.

Developers of displays can now focus on providing added functionality and new features rather than building a foundation from scratch to meet rigorous safety standards.

Technology from Esterel gives the embedded developer the ability to efficiently design safety-critical avionics display applications targeted for the Wind River platform.

The integration between Esterel and Wind River products includes qualified code generation, verification and enhanced support for OpenGL SC, safety-critical graphics in the deployed system.

Once the application is designed, the code can be automatically generated in C or Ada and integrated on the Avionics Platform.

AdaCore has fully integrated its Ada code, compliant with the Ada 2005 standard, into the design workflow.

The Ada programming language is the language of choice in avionics projects including the 787, A380, 767, A330 MRTT, 777, Eurofighter and NH90.

The Ada 2005 ISO standard, goes even further in providing innovative features for building safety-critical software.

New restrictions and profiles allow projects to adapt their run-time to their safety-critical development, supporting deterministic scheduling and initialisation, together with static source code analysis.

Ada 2005 has released flexible task-dispatching policies, execution-time clocks and timers and a unification of concurrent and object-oriented features.

Barco is taking advantage of open architecture to build open standards-based displays based on COTS design tools and OpenGL.

These components enable customers to easily develop and integrate their own applications into display solutions.

Jean-Christophe Monfret, Product Management Director at Barco, explains, "Military and civil aviation customers are demanding more advanced applications that become available faster, that are cheaper and that are better integrated into the same unit".

"This approach enables them to reduce weight and space, improve system availability and comply with various levels of the DO-178B software safety standard".

"The open architecture enabled by Wind River and its partner ecosystem allows us to meet these rigorous requirements and reduce our time to market".

"Certifying systems such as primary flight display, synthetic vision, enhanced vision and digital moving map for ARINC 653 requires a COTS approach to maintain a competitive edge".

"Wind River is a pioneer in COTS software and understands the high service-level demands of our environment".

"That is why we have selected VxWorks 653 as the default core operating system for our MOSArt solution for open displays".

Alex Wilson, Aerospace and Defence Specialist for Wind River adds, "Avionics systems are quickly moving toward standards-based certification as systems integrators are being asked to deliver increasingly complex products".

"Together with our partners, we are able to reduce development and certification risk".

"With approximately 40,000 developers using Wind River platforms, we are confident that the airspace of tomorrow requires a COTS strategy for software development".

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